Electra Heart
by EwanChaos44
Summary: "A savage journey into the Heart of the American Dream." - Hunter S. Thompson
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

When we think about our lives, we usually do not look at the present; we tend to look at the past or the future. The scars of the past; the hopes of the future. Why can we not focus on life as we currently live it?

Talking about the past it is nostalgic to look back on good times. However, constantly looking back to flashbacks of good times and never progressing with life is harmful. It is also harmful to never get over a negative flashback.

In terms of the future it can be scary to wonder where we will end up. Who will we still be friends with? Who will we lose touch with? Where will I end up? When will I die?

Everyone chooses to occupy their time with something different. Sometimes we make deviant choices to occupy ourselves.

There are many different interests that people pursue. Some are moved by music and others are interested in science. Sometimes our tastes overlap into other interests.

Sometimes we are enveloped within hatred and darkness. Sometimes we cannot escape these feelings or they progress to awful heights. Sometimes we feel like, from these heights, we are falling.

It is difficult to tackle problems face to face. Everyone will have to overcome some problem in their lives and the only way to so is by dealing with your own problem in your own way.

Love. It is very tricky. Love is a losing game. Love is what we all strive for. Love makes the decisions for some of us. Some try to resist love, but there is no antidote for it and no Cupid-repellant. Not yet, anyway.

Changes are difficult. In the end we all adapt to the change and get used to it. Some take longer to get used to the change. Some adapt to the change, but they are hurt in the process. The change was not a positive one.

Even the happiest of people have low points. When the lights go down. No one is one-dimensional, even if they appear to only have one personality trait.

Nothing is perfect. In fact, I love imperfection. There's always something that needs to be fixed. This makes life seem more realistic and not like we live in a pure, plastic bubble.

We all have dreams. Fulfilled dreams. Broken dreams. Dreams may be a disappointment for some, but we are all motivated by dreams in some way. Or at least, some of us used to be. The American dream.

Everybody needs a friend. Whether we believe it or not we all feed off of friendship, like a cactus in the valley waiting for the flood to come back around.

So there you have it. Probably something that you just read as gibberish and nothing important. Maybe by the end of it all it will make sense. Perhaps not. By the end you will at least be more informed on the lives of others. Maybe it will influence you to be the best person that you can be. I think that'd be really great.

The truth is I am old and frail. It is difficult to do the things that I used to do and I will probably die soon.

When I look back on my life it's not that I don't want to see things exactly as they happened… it's just that I prefer to remember them in a more artistic way. Clinical psychology tells us, arguably, that trauma is the ultimate killer.

Memories are not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics. They can be lost forever.


	2. Cactus in the Valley

Cactus in the Valley

"Why?"

"Why am I even bothering doing this?"

A figure walked down from the valley after staring at the view for a good ten minutes. Once he was at the level of most of the other buildings the young man let out another disgruntled groan. He held his right hand in his silver blonde hair as he resisted the want to turn around, hike up the hill, and leave the valley. After furrowing his inky, dark eyebrows that clearly contrasted his hair he decided to keep walking.

His shoes looked just like an American flag with red, white, and blue and stars and stripes on it. His loose-fitting shirt was very similar with the red and white stripes on the shirt and the blue with white stars on his sleeves. He was wearing blue jeans. His hazel eyes glanced to the right as he observed the first building.

"Oh joy," he murmured, sarcastically. "A farm."

It was indeed a farm with many crops that had just been planted; they were probably intended for Spring since the first day of Spring was tomorrow. There were also a few windmills nearby the buildings and greenhouses.

The young man turned to the left and just saw more nature. After more walking, the young man walked further on and nearly crossed a bridge to get to the other side. To the right was a waterfall and something else that the young man didn't really care to look into.

Across the bridge, the young man was too bored to look around for any sort of scenery. He found his destination not too far away from the bridge: another farm. It was larger than the other farm. The young man walked a little more on to the farm and saw a strange-looking man.

"You're Wyatt, right?" he asked the blonde. He nodded. The other man explained that he was Takakura. Wyatt had been previously informed of things relating to the farm. Takakura worked on the farm with Wyatt's father and another man.

"The three of us shared the same dream, you know," Takakura explained in between informing Wyatt of the farm. "I bet he never told you… but I remember it all."

The circumstances that brought Wyatt to the farm related to his father and the other man. The two got into a huge argument and abandoned Forget-Me-Not Valley without leaving any trace of where they may have gone.

"His daughter will be here tomorrow," Takakura told Wyatt after the tour of the farm. "I hope that the two of you will get along." Wyatt turned down to the opposite end of the farm where one of the three residential houses was. It was close to the large field and was at the end of the grazing field.

"We'll see," he said. Takakura nodded and explained that everything on the farm was done.

"Maybe you'll want to go around and meet the other people," Takakura suggested and left to go do some errands in the nearby town. Wyatt didn't take the suggestion seriously and spent the rest of the day inside his small house.

Wyatt woke up early the next day. Because he was taking the job that his father used to do, Wyatt was the rancher. The other ex-worker's daughter would tend to the crops.

There weren't that many animals on the ranch because Wyatt's dad pawned most of them before leaving. There was one cow named Ermintrude, there was one hen named Yin, and there was one rooster named Yang.

"Looks like money won't be rolling in for a good long while…" sighed Wyatt as he brushed Ermintrude. The brush was most likely the only tool that Wyatt would need, as he preferred to milk without using the milker. It was a sunny day, so Wyatt pushed Ermintrude outside and went over to the chicken coop to do the same with the chickens.

"So this is The Diamonds Ranch?" the voice of a female echoed throughout the ranch. Wyatt heard the voice and started walking to the front of the ranch.

"Yes, this is the place where your father used to work," Takakura explained to her. "The young man who will be working alongside you is already here."

"Great!" the female smiled. Wyatt walked towards the entrance where the female and Takakura finally noticed him. Wyatt got a good view of the female now. She was wearing a while dress similar to something that Jessica Rabbit would wear with a silver and white belt. She was wearing black socks with black shoes. Her hair was candy apple red and matched her red lipstick. She was clutching onto a black handbag. The female smiled at Wyatt and greeted him. "Hello!"

**(A/N: **./tumblr_lojoerIQXi1qmekyoo1_ **)**

Wyatt scanned the female up and down once more before starting conversation.

"Are you honestly going to work on a farm like that?" he asked. The female was clearly taken aback by the way she put her hand on her chest and her smile vanished.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Well, first of all, you're wearing white," Wyatt explained. "You're going to get dirt all over it. Especially since it looks like it may be dragging on the ground. And… a dress? Really? We're not models about to go on the catwalk or something, you know."

"Hey, I used to be a model before I decided to take my dad's job here on the farm!" the female explained.

"That doesn't take away from the fact that you could have dressed more appropriately…" Wyatt mumbled, turning away from the redhead. "By the way, this is a ranch… not a farm."

"I'm working on the crops, so I can call it a farm if I like!" she replied, angrily. Takakura could clearly see that the rivalry was going to run in the family.

"Alex… this is Wyatt," Takakura introduced the two when the argument seemed to have calmed down. "Wyatt… this is Alex." Wyatt started walking away and Alex scowled at him.

"It's nice to meet you, too, you know!" Alex yelled at him, starting to walk with him. This was mainly because her house was in the direction of where Wyatt was walking. Suddenly, two dogs ran out in front of Wyatt and Alex.

"Huh?" Wyatt looked at the dogs curiously. One had floppy ears and the other had pointy ears.

"Ahh!" Alex squealed. "They're so cute!" Takakura wandered over upon hearing all the noise and saw the two dogs.

"Oh… these dogs appear not to have owners," he noted. Takakura looked at the two newbie farmers and then made a suggestion. "Why don't you two take the dogs?"

"That's a great idea!" Alex replied, immediately. She rushed over to the pointy-eared one and hugged it. "I'll take this one." Wyatt looked down at the other dog, raising an inky eyebrow.

"I guess that means I'll be taking you," the blonde said. The dog barked at him, happily.

"I'll get them settled with doghouses," Takakura explained. "You two should go and meet the villagers. Maybe you two will start to get along if you know other people."

"Hmm…" Wyatt looked at Alex, disparagingly.

"Grr…" the redhead growled back.

"Just do it…" Takakura sighed. The two turned to Takakura and nodded, simultaneously. They walked off The Diamonds Ranch and made their way off to meet the other villagers of Forget-Me-Not Valley. They started off by making their way to the farm by the entrance of the valley.


	3. Face to Face

Face to Face

Wyatt and Alex's first location was the farm close to the entrance of the valley.

"It's always easier to work on the farm the day after the start of the season," a brunette said to two other people as Wyatt and Alex walked up to the farm.

"Hi!" Alex said, enthusiastically. "We're the new farmers! I'm Alex and this is Wyatt! Nice to meet you!" Wyatt was too drowned out by her enthusiasm that he didn't bother to correct her into saying "ranchers."

"Hey, I'm Vesta," the large woman introduced herself. "Obviously, I run a farm like yours. This is my younger brother, Marlin." Vesta pointed out the black-haired young man, who barely gave a wave.

"Nice to meet you!" beamed Alex as she noticed Marlin, not taking her eyes off of him.

"Hi, I'm Celia," the brunette introduced herself. "I help with the farm work." she explained.

"It's nice to meet you all…" Wyatt mumbled, almost in an uncaring manner. Wyatt started leaving when he noticed that Alex was still admiring Marlin. "Okay… time to go…" he started dragging Alex away.

"I used to be a model, you know…" the redhead was starting to try to charm Marlin, but finally complied in leaving with Wyatt. "I nearly had him!" Alex scowled, but kept walking with Wyatt.

"I think there are people up there," Wyatt noted, pointing towards the waterfall.

"Ooh, pretty!" Alex admired the waterfall for a minute before they walked towards it. There, they found a tent and a staircase. They went down the staircase to find a dig site with two people inside.

"Oh, hello there," the blonde female with glasses greeted them. "I'm Flora."

"I'm Carter." the older man introduced himself. "We work here at the dig site, studying archaeology and the history of the valley."

"I'm Wyatt," the silver blonde greeted the duo. Alex introduced herself. "We both work at The Diamonds Ranch now." Flora and Carter nodded.

"Would you like to help our search?" Carter offered.

"We'd love to!" the redhead replied, hastily. Wyatt glared at her and Alex coughed a little. "Actually, we have to meet the other people. I'd love to come back some other time, though."

"Well," Flora piped up, pushing her glasses back into place, "it was nice to meet you two." Wyatt and Alex said their goodbyes and left the mine.

"You know…" Alex murmured as the two started walking towards the bridge. "I have a better outfit for farming. I'll show it to you tomorrow once I start working."

"Fine," Wyatt replied, clearly not caring. Alex let out an over-exaggerated groan that Wyatt ignored. The redhead observed Wyatt a little closer and noted something that she hadn't noticed before.

"Interesting necklace…" Alex pointed out his necklace. It was a gold necklace with a skull pendant. "It's very… that one word…"

"Macabre?" Wyatt asked. Alex blinked a few times.

"Sure?" the redhead replied, with uncertainty. The two soon wound up at the inn across the ranch. They looked at the sign to see that the inn's name was the Inner Inn. Alex thought it was hilarious, but Wyatt didn't seem to care. The two walked in to see two people talking to each other.

"Ah, you must be the two new farmers," the female wondered when she turned to see the two walk in.

"Yep! I'm Alex!" the redhead introduced himself. Wyatt gave a small wave and introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you," the female smiled and put her hands together. "My name is Ruby." the male from the other side of the counter waved to Wyatt and Alex.

"I'm Tim," he introduced himself. "We run the Inner Inn. Our son should be… probably in the kitchen if he's actually awake."

"Yes, dad," replied a blonde as he walked out of what could be assumed to be the kitchen, "I am awake. Hey, nice to meet you, my name's Rock." he greeted the two, who introduced themselves once more.

"Do you work at the inn, too?" Alex asked, curiously. Rock let out a loud laugh and grinned.

"I live here! Working… hahaha…" the blonde laughed. "Now, partying… that's another story."

"Um, I think it's time to leave now," Wyatt decided with a small nod. Alex agreed and they said their goodbyes before moving on to the next location. "Where do you want to go next?" he didn't seem to care to choose the next location.

"How about that colorful hut thingy?" suggested the redhead. Wyatt shrugged, noting that it was fine to go there next. When the two walked over, they saw a man sitting under a tree and playing guitar.

"Hey, you two must be the new farmers, right?" he asked. Alex replied that it was true. The man stopped playing on his guitar and stood up to greet the two properly. "I'm Gustafa. I live here at this yurt. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Wyatt," he shook Gustafa's hand after introducing himself. Alex did the same.

"That was a pretty song that you were playing," said Alex with a small smile. Gustafa thanked her.

"It's a song that I had been working on for a while," the musician explained. "I'm glad you like it."

"Well, we'd probably better be off to meet everyone else," Wyatt explained.

"Okay, well it was nice to meet you two," Gustafa said. "Oh, and before you go to any other houses, could you go meet that redhead down by the beach? She's not very… social, but it would be nice if you got to know her."

"Sure!" Alex replied, quickly. "She seems nice." Gustafa thanked the two and they made their way to the beach, which wasn't too far from Gustafa's home. The aforementioned redhead was standing with one hand in her pocket and looking out to the ocean. "Hi!" Alex greeted her, loudly. She turned around slowly.

"Hey," she greeted them. After some silence, Alex decided to speak up.

"Um, well I'm Alex and this is Wyatt!" she explained. "We just moved here!" there was some more silence and the redhead turned away from them to look back out to the ocean.

"My name's Nami," she introduced herself. However, there was nothing more to be said and Wyatt suggested that they leave to meet more people. They kept walking and came across a big guy standing by a pond with his arms crossed.

"Oh… you two are the new farmers," he said. Wyatt and Alex nodded. "Nice to meet you, my name's Cody. I'm an artist. I live just over in that trailer over there."

"I'm Wyatt," he introduced himself.

"And I'm Alex," she introduced herself. "That's cool that you're an artist! I do some drawings and stuff sometimes, too. Maybe we could collaborate sometime."

"Perhaps," Cody said with an overwhelmed laugh. Wyatt decided that they should go meet other people, so they said goodbye to Cody and walked a little bit to an odd-looking building. It seemed to be powered by some electric power. Out on the front of the house was a short man with black hair and a lab coat.

"Hey, what are you up to?" Alex greeted the man rather bluntly. He got startled and turned to see the two people.

"Hmm?" he murmured. "I haven't seen you two before."

"We're new ranchers," Wyatt answered, quickly. He grew tired of Alex explaining this, so he decided to answer himself this time. "I'm Wyatt, and this is Alex."

"Oh, well nice to meet you," he nodded. "I'm Daryl. Next time when you come to talk with me, please don't startle me in such a manner." Alex nodded.

"I'll be good," after this, they made their way back to the road. They started walking past a tree when someone was sitting down, asking for change.

"I just wanna go home to Popo Valley!" he said. "Can you help, moi?"

"Sure!" Alex said with a smile, dropping 10G into his small can.

"Well, it's not much, but thank you," the homeless man then turned to Wyatt, who seemingly never stopped and was nearly already at the nearby bar.

"Sorry, bye!" the redhead said, unable to properly apologize for Wyatt in time. Alex gave him a small nudge for being rude to the homeless person, but Wyatt didn't really care. "Well he said that his name was Murrey cause I asked when you didn't notice."

"Good to know," Wyatt replied. Alex couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Nevertheless, they entered the bar to find a man and a woman behind the counter.

"Hey, we're the new farmers in the valley!" Alex replied with a big smile and a wave. Wyatt pointed at himself.

"Wyatt," he named himself and then pointed to the redhead. "Alex." he then gave a thumbs up.

"Nice to meet you two," the man greeted them, wiping a glass. "I'm Griffin." the blonde girl flashed a small smiled and waved.

"I'm Muffy," she said, coyly, looking curiously at Wyatt. Alex immediately started glaring at the waitress. Wyatt noticed this and was a little curious as to why she was doing so, but was more curious as to why Muffy was so curious of him.

"Nice to meet you," Wyatt finally said.

"Well, we'd best be going," the redhead said, quickly after Wyatt spoke back to Muffy. "It was nice to meet you." Alex said, although it mostly seemed to be directed to Griffin. He and Muffy waved as the two left. The two stopped for a moment outside the bar.

"That was odd," Wyatt noted.

"Shut up!" Alex replied, hastily. She was turning a little red. "Let's just keep going, okay?" Wyatt shrugged and followed her advice to go to the house on the other side of the road from the bar.

"Ah, hello!" a little old lady greeted Wyatt and Alex. She and an old man were outside of their house. "I haven't seen you two around before."

"Hello, ma'am," Wyatt greeted the old woman politely. "We're new on the farm. I'm Wyatt."

"Nice to meet you!" Alex said, happily. "I'm Alex." the old lady smiled at Alex's happiness.

"I'm Nina," she introduced herself.

"I'm Galen," he introduced himself. "Either of you like to fish?" he asked. Alex quickly responded with a horrified face and some sort of hissing noise.

"Sure, it's fun," Wyatt replied with a small shrug.

"AH!" Alex yelped, quite shocked in Wyatt's answer. Galen chuckled and smiled.

"Oh," he replied, "well then do you want this old fishing rod?" Wyatt said that he would like it and Galen gave him a fishing rod.

"Thank you," Wyatt nodded and put the fishing rod away. "It was nice to meet you two." And with that, Wyatt and Alex continued on their path of meeting people.

"I am very disappointed in you…" Alex mumbled under her breath before walking to the house next to Galen and Nina's house. The redhead knocked on the door to see a man running in place.

"Hey!" he said, in an excited tone.

"Who is it?" another voice said. There was a boy also running in place near the first man.

"We're new here…" Alex explained after confusion. "We're just meeting people. I'm Alex and this is Wyatt." the two stopped running in place.

"Oh, you must be the two new farmers," the man noted with a nod. "I'm Wally!"

"And I'm Hugh!" the boy introduced himself. "We're going for a run!" and with that, the two ran off. A woman walked a little bit forward and chuckled.

"Sorry about that," she said. "They're very militant about running at specific times of the day. I'm Chris." the two reintroduced themselves before saying that that had to go off to the next spot to meet people and said goodbye.

"Is that a house…?" Alex wondered, pointing to a small tower on a higher hill than Cody's trailer. They saw two men slide down from the rope and decided that it must be a house.

"Hey, we're the new farmers," Wyatt introduced himself and Alex to the two men before saying their names.

"Nice to meet you," the two looked like twins, only one had on blue and the other had on green. "I'm Kassey." the one in blue explained.

"I'm Patrick," the one in green explained. "We make fireworks." after the introductions, the twins said that they were busy making fireworks for some town across the valley, so they went back into their house to get to work.

"It looks like this is the last place to meet people," noted Alex as they made it up a large hill to a big mansion. They walked inside the large mansion and saw a girl playing on a piano, but making a few mistakes as she played.

"Darn…" she murmured after making a mistake. She then stopped playing altogether and got off the piano bench to notice that Wyatt and Alex were there. "Oh! Um… hello."

"Hey…" Wyatt said, slowly. He was tempted to ask why she wasn't playing perfectly, but bit his tongue at risk of sounding offensive.

"Hi, we're the new farmers at The Diamonds Ranch," Alex explained and then they said their names.

"Oh!" the girl said with a smile. "Well, it's nice to meet you! I'm Lumina. I live here with my grandmother and butler. Sebastian! Romana!" an old lady and an older man walked out from a room under the stairs.

"What is it, dearie?" Romana wondered before noticing Wyatt and Alex. "Oh! New villagers!" Wyatt and Alex introduced themselves again.

"I suppose we don't need to introduce ourselves since Miss Lumina called out our names," Sebastian jokes, but introduced himself anyway. Romana did the same.

"It was nice meeting you," the redhead told them with a smile. They all said their goodbyes and Wyatt and Alex made their way back to the ranch.

"Huh?" a voice wondered as the two started walking past Wyatt's house. "A Harvest Sprite I've never seen before." the two looked around curiously for the voice and saw three very small sprites by their feet. The smallest was in blue, the medium-sized was in red, and the large one was in yellow.

"Who is it?" the blue one wondered. "Who is it?"

"Who is it?" the red one repeated. "There aren't any other Harvest Sprites besides us."

"Who is it?" the yellow one started asking now. "Who is it?"

"Now that I think about it…" the red one said, slowly.

"Who is it?" the blue one asked, again.

"Okay, that's enough," Wyatt pulled out a hammer from Alex's bag (that she would need for farming) and lifted it over the three sprites.

"Stop it!" Alex yelled, grabbing her hammer back and putting it back away. "Sorry about that… I'm Alex and he's Wyatt." the Harvest Sprites all nodded and introduced themselves. The red one was named Nak, the blue one was named Nic, and the yellow one was named Flak.

After the Harvest Sprites left, Wyatt and Alex went their separate ways to do things. Alex was somewhat forcing herself to go and hang out with other people, but it didn't work well and she wound up back at her house not doing anything the rest of the night. Wyatt didn't even bother and stayed at the ranch all day and night. The next day would be the start of the two actually working together and taking on their fathers' legacy.


	4. Secrets

Secrets

The next day was Spring 2nd. Wyatt and Takakura were up earlier than Alex to do their work. Takakura had already gone into town to do whatever needed to be done there.

Wyatt had just finished tending to the chickens and left the coop when he caught a glimpse of Alex walking out of her house. She had taken his advice on changing to more farm-friendly attire, but Wyatt immediately thought that the outfit looked very ridiculous. Her red hair was messily tied into a bun with a lot of hair not actually in the bun. Alex was wearing a standard black T-shirt, which was fine, but the odd thing about her outfit was the overalls that she was wearing. They had vertical red and white stripes and had patterns of Mickey and Minnie Mouse all over them. She was only wearing one suspender. Alex still had on black heels.

"Well… the outfit's an improvement… sorta…" Wyatt told Alex when she asked him about her outfit change. "You're gonna have to get the shoe problem sorted soon, though."

"What's wrong with my shoes!" barked Alex, looking down at her heels. "They're cute and match what I'm wearing." Wyatt simply let out a small sigh.

"You're seriously going to wear heels while working on a field?" he asked her. She was silent for a while and Wyatt just shook his head. "Okay, good luck with that." Wyatt waved and made his way away from her house.

"I'll show you…" murmured Alex once he had gone into the barn. She moved her hair around a little before hearing a bark from inside the house. "Sparky!" Alex smiled as her new dog excitedly ran out and started jumping around.

"Hmm…" Wyatt mumbled, half-seeing Alex from the pasture that he was observing to see if he could get any grass growing. Alex noticed this and got serious.

"Okay, Sparky, we can play later," the redhead told her dog, taking him inside and closing the door. Takakura gave her all the tools that she would need earlier and she found some free seeds in the shelf in the tool shed. They were tomato seeds: perfect for the start of Spring!

"Okay… so I need to till the field first!" Alex pulled out the required hoe from her belongings and started carefully tilling the field. Once she had tilled enough space to plant two bags of seeds, she put the hoe away and started spreading the seeds. Alex pulled out her watering can, but didn't notice that it was empty.

"Oops!" the farmer giggled and walked over to the well that held water. Alex nearly tripped a few times on her way because of the shifty dirt near the field. She finished her job for the day by watering her crops and smiling.

"Hmm… I wonder what I should do now since I just finished my job for the day…" Alex looked around. "Guess I'll bother Wyatt." she caught him coming out of the barn and rushed in front of his door and blocked the door.

"What are you doing?" Wyatt asked after waiting for her to move.

"Um…" the redhead waited for a while to think of what to say. "Wanna get lunch?" Wyatt just gave her an unimpressed look and shook his head. He was able to get Alex out of the way and open his door, but she made her way into the room and Wyatt gave up trying to get her out. Alex asked if she could have a drink.

"Fine," Wyatt replied and handed her a glass of water. Alex thanked him and he just let out a little grunt as he started making some food.

"So…" Alex tried to think of some conversation. "Is that your natural hair color?" Wyatt gave her a nasty look and then went back to his food before responding.

"Yes," he told her.

"So is mine," the redhead replied with a small and started playing with her messy hair. Wyatt let out a scoff and Alex replied with an offended noise. "Well I never! I'm going!"

"Bye," Wyatt replied, still watching his food. Alex stood up and walked towards the door.

"Hmph!" she yelled before slamming the door shut as she left. "Well, who can I bother now?" Alex wondered as she started walking away from the ranch. She made her way to the forest and found the hobo, Murrey, hanging out there.

"Moi…" he mumbled as she approached.

"Hey there," she smiled and waved. "This is your home, right? Considering you're homeless…" Alex placed a finger on her chin.

"Moi," Murrey replied and nodded.

"So… what's happening?" Alex was struggling for questions. Murrey just looked at her for a while.

"I need to get back to Popo Valley!" he replied.

"Okay…" murmured Alex, looking at him oddly. She turned around and saw Rock walking towards the pond and quickly changed to talk to him. "Rock! Is that your natural hair color?" she asked.

"Ya," Rock nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, both your parents have black hair… and are Asian, come to think of it…" Alex thought for a moment. Rock let out a loud laugh.

"Oh well!" he shrugged it off. "Hey, let me know if there are any parties or something. I already asked Lumina… but she never tells me when there are." Rock chuckled and walked deeper into the forest. Alex waved and decided to prod more people for information about their pasts. She next found herself going to the inn.

"Hey, Alex," Tim greeted Alex from the front desk. "It's nice to see you going around and chatting with all the villagers."

"It's nice to do so," Alex replied with a relieved sigh. "Sometimes it's hard for me to be social." Tim nodded.

"That's normal," he told her. "From my travels, I've met many people similar to you."

"Have you ever had any bad travel experiences?" Alex wondered, playing with the leaves of a plant. Tim raised an eyebrow curiously.

"No," he replied. "Why do you ask?" the redhead shrugged and replied that she was just wondering. "Well, there hasn't been anything too big."

"Okay," Alex smiled and nodded. "I think I'm gonna go look around a little more. Bye!" Tim waved to her as she left the Inner Inn. She decided to visit Cody next, as she was always able to appreciate another artist. He found him at Turtle Pond, looking into the water.

"Hey, Alex," Cody greeted the redhead when she said hello to him. "I was just about to go back to my trailer. Won't you join me?"

"Sure!" she replied, beaming. The two went to Cody's house and he made them some warm drinks. Alex sipped on her tea and looked around at all the paintings. "Wow, I'm impressed with how many paintings you have."

"Thanks," Cody replied, taking a sip of his own tea. "They're all quite old, though." he explained.

"Oh, well why haven't you put up any newer paintings?" wondered Alex. Cody took one more sip of his drink before replying.

"They haven't been very good," he explained. "I haven't really made too many paintings in a while."

"Artist's block?" Alex wondered. Cody nodded. "Been there. Why do you think you've lost your muse?" Cody was silent for a moment.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "It's just not there anymore."

"That's odd…" Alex wanted to pip up that muse usually doesn't vanish for some reason, but silenced herself by having more tea. After they chatted for longer, Alex decided to go back to the ranch.

"It's weird how everyone seems to have secrets here…" Alex mumbled as she walked into her house only to find herself being attacked by Sparky. "Sparky! You must be hungry…"

The next day was Spring 3rd. Alex was starting to get used to waking up a little earlier than usual and woke up closer to when Wyatt and Takakura were waking up.

"Hey, could you two come over here, please?" Takakura asked Wyatt and Alex while they were working outside. Wyatt was still looking over how to get the pasture to grow grass and Alex was tending to her crops.

"Hmm?" Alex wondered, putting her watering can away and walking over. Wyatt hopped over the fence and walked over, casually.

"I have a request," Takakura told the two. "There is a merchant named Van who comes to Forget-Me-Not every 3rd and 8th of the month. I want the two of you to go there and sell some stuff and maybe buy whatever you want. It's the only way to sell things in the valley, so I want the two of you to be used to it."

"Good thing I went foraging yesterday…" mumbled Alex under her breath, aware that she hadn't grown any crops yet. "I should probably also buy more crops."

"Good luck," Takakura told them before leaving to do his own chores.

"So when do you want to go look for Van?" Alex turned and asked Wyatt. He responded with a small shrug.

"Whenever you're done with your chores, I guess…" Wyatt replied, hopping over the fence to look at the pasture once more.

"Hey!" Alex yelled, angrily. "Don't assume that you'll be waiting on me!" the redhead crossed her arms and waited for the rancher to reply.

"Well ARE you done with your chores?" Wyatt asked. Alex was silent and then started laughing nervously before turning away and going back to her crops. Wyatt sighed and made his way back to his house.

"Okay, I've finished!" about an hour later, Alex was knocking on Wyatt's door. A few seconds after, Wyatt answered and stepped outside.

"Let's go, then," he said. Alex smiled and nodded and the two walked off of the ranch. Takakura had already gone out of town for the day.

"Where do you think he is?" Alex wondered, looking around. "I remember Takakura saying something about his shop being outside."

"Do you want to go to Vesta's farm while we wait?" Wyatt suggested, making Alex quickly go red. "I want to ask them something about the pasture and you could probably use some more crops to work on."

"Are you kidding!" the redhead barked, making Wyatt flinch. "I can't go see Marlin dressed in something like… THIS!"

"You're overdressed if anything…" mumbled Wyatt as he started forcing the two to go to Vesta's farm by walking across the bridge. Alex groaned, but followed him regardless. Celia and Marlin were out in the field, so the two went to them.

"Hi!" Celia greeted Wyatt with a smile. "What can I help you with?"

"The pasture at our ranch isn't growing grass and I can't figure out how to get it growing again," Wyatt explained. "My cow isn't able to graze outside because of it." Celia smiled.

"You can get your grass growing again just by putting some fertilizer on it!" she replied, clasping her hands together. "It'll be 40G a bag if you want some."

"I'll take ten bags," decided Wyatt. "Might as well fill out at least one row." Celia chuckled a little and handed him the ten bags of fertilizer. Wyatt gave her the money as exchange.

"It doesn't need to be watered or anything, either, which is very nice!" explained Celia with a smile. Wyatt nodded and thanked her. Alex heard Wyatt thanking Celia and found it odd because she had never heard him say anything kind or thankful until now.

"Excuse me?" Marlin's voice brought Alex back to their conversation.

"Hmm?" Alex turned back to him and then giggled a little before going back into her "model pose" that she had been doing to impress Marlin. "Oh yes, where were we?"

"I just explained to you what seasons certain crops grow in," he replied. "Which is weird because most farmers should know these things on their own…" Alex let out a loud laugh and a big grin.

"I love strawberries… I'll take a few bags of those. And some watermelons, too, please," Marlin nodded and gave her the requested items. Alex gave him the necessary money and thanked him, but noticed that Marlin was looking over at Celia and Wyatt's conversation.

"Yeah…" Marlin replied to Alex's thanks, not really paying attention to her. He looked a little jealous of Wyatt.

"Are you ready, Alex?" the blonde turned to the redhead and asked. Alex let out a small huff under her breath and glared at Celia quickly before nodding to Wyatt.

"Bye! Thanks again!" said Alex to Marlin before leaving. He didn't really respond with much of a goodbye. Celia smiled and waved to Wyatt and he waved back.

"So how was it?" Wyatt wondered and Alex let out a loud sigh.

"We're gonna have to get on because I feel like I'll be rambling my problems to you a lot…" she explained.

"That wasn't the answer that I expected you to say…" replied Wyatt. He turned and looked towards the waterfall and saw Daryl on the opposite side of the campsite. "That's odd…"

"Huh?" wondered Alex. Wyatt pointed to the scientist and the redhead chuckled and joked that maybe he was spying on Flora. "I know I would if I was a boy."

"Hmm…" Wyatt replied in an unimpressed tone. Alex rolled her eyes. As they passed the Diamonds Ranch, they noted a large man in red in between the Inner Inn and the bar. He had a stall set up, so they immediately assumed that it was Van.

"Yes, I am Van the salesman," the fat man replied. "Nice to meet you two."

"Likewise," Alex replied with a smile. They all made their transactions and left the stall. The two only sold what they needed because Van didn't have anything that they wanted to buy. Wyatt and Alex went back to the ranch and did the remaining chores that they had relating to what they had just bought.


	5. Love Is a Losing Game

Love Is a Losing Game

The next day was Spring 4th. It was a cloudy day with no planned rain for the day. Celia walked away from Vesta's Farm and walked towards the bridge. She noticed Muffy standing on the bridge looking into the water with a sad face.

"Hi, Muffy," Celia greeted the waitress. She turned to Celia slowly.

"Oh, it's you, Celia," Muffy noted the brunette's appearance. "Would you mind listening to me for a bit?"

"I don't mind," Celia replied, walking closer and standing next to Muffy. The blonde let out a long sigh before telling Celia the reason why she was sad.

"I got dumped,"

"What!" gasped Celia. Muffy nodded.

"He was from the city, but…" she choked up. "He was cheating on me." Muffy closed her eyes tightly. She waited a moment before replying, most likely to make sure that she didn't start crying. "He said that he loved the other girl more than me. He didn't even hesitate."

"Oh, Muffy," the brunette sighed. "I'm so sorry."

"This always happens to me…" Muffy sighed after receiving Celia's condolences. "Everybody thinks of me like some kind of pushover. No one's ever serious. Oh, where is my Mr. Right?" there was some silence as the two looked into the river water.

"Oh well," Muffy smiled and shrugged it off. "There are plenty more fish in the sea; I can't give up."

"There you go!" Celia smiled. "Positive thinking is the best in these kind of situations." Muffy turned to the farmer and thanked her.

"I feel better now that I've talked about it," she explained. "There aren't many women I can say these kind of things to here. I hope you'll let me do this again."

"Anytime," Celia nodded. "Although, hopefully it doesn't happen again." Muffy chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"So where are you off to?" the two started walking past the bridge because Muffy would be returning to the Blue Bar.

"I'm going to the Diamonds Ranch," explained Celia. "I want to make sure that the rancher there was properly able to fertilize his pasture."

"Oh, the new guy… Wyatt, right?" Muffy recalled meeting the rancher. Celia nodded to confirm that's who she was talking about. "He's kinda cute." she said with a smirk. Celia chuckled at her ability to easily get back into the game.

"You think so?" wondered the farmer. Muffy nodded and Celia thought about it. "I dunno. I don't really like that type that's always angry all the time." the blonde shrugged, mumbling something about Marlin, but letting it go and going back to work after saying a goodbye. Celia knocked on Wyatt's door and he answered.

"Hi!" she greeted him with a smile. "I just came over to see if the fertilizer was working."

"Yep, it is," Wyatt replied, bluntly.

"Oh, that's good to hear," Celia nodded. There was some awkward silence and Wyatt raised an eyebrow before offering if Celia wanted to come inside. "Oh, sure!" she walked inside and the two sat down at the table.

"It's not that big of a house," Wyatt explained. "Sorry about that." the house was indeed fairly small. There wasn't much in it. There was a normal-sized bed, a TV with a video player, a small kitchen, a small dresser, a small table, two chairs, a calendar, and a small bookcase.

"That's alright," Celia said with a smile. She asked for some water and Wyatt gave her a glass. He also had some water for himself. "Hey, you have a video player. That's pretty interesting."

"I guess so…" mumbled Wyatt, crossing his hands and looking at the video player. "Although, the video that's already inside it won't seem to play."

"Really?" Celia wondered. "Do you mind if I take a look?" Wyatt said that it was okay, so Celia got up and ejected the video from the video player. She squinted to see that something was written on it, but the font had faded away.

"It's been there since I've been here," Wyatt explained, getting up and taking another look at it. "I'm pretty sure it's the video and not the video player. Or the TV."

"Weird…" murmured Celia as she put the video back into the video player. "Well, I'd better get going. I still have some work to do. Thanks for the water."

"No problem," Wyatt nodded. The two waved as Celia left Wyatt's house. As Celia walked off the ranch, she thought that she would want to visit Lumina before going back to work, considering the two hadn't seen each other in a while. With this thought, Celia started walking past the Inner Inn, but stopped when she heard Rock's voice.

"Hey, Lumina," the blonde started walking up to Lumina, who was standing in the grassy area between the inn and bar.

"Hello, Rock," Lumina greeted Rock.

"You've got good timing," said Rock. "There's something I've been thinking about that I'd like to ask you."

"What is it?" wondered Lumina, smiling.

"It's about Sebastian," Rock told her. He took a small breath and frowned. "This is hard to say, but according to my sources… he… well, he wears a toupee. I've thought about this and decided that he must be suffering because he can't tell this secret to anyone. So I'm going to shave my head so that he'll feel comfortable to reveal his baldness."

"What!" Lumina said, clearly not believing Rock. She turned and saw Celia. "Celia… Sebastian doesn't wear a toupee, does he?"

"No…" Celia sighed and shook her head. Lumina scowled and turned to Rock to glare daggers at him.

"What!" Rock asked, curious as to how he had upset her.

"Oh, forget it!" Lumina scoffed and walked off back to her mansion. Rock walked up to the path and watched Lumina walk away before turning to Celia.

"I don't understand what the problem was…" the blonde mumbled before walking away to the beach. Celia sighed and shook her head, deciding that she should probably just go back to work.

The next day was Spring 5th. It was a very sunny day, which was a huge difference from the day before. Flora was hanging out around her and Carter's tent before doing some work at the mine. It wasn't too early in the day, but not too late in the day to start working.

"What a nice day…" the architect sighed with a small smile. She walked over to the waterfall and looked down into the river, watching leaves fall into the water.

"Morning, Flora," Carter's voice called over to her. She looked up and turned around to greet her roommate and coworker. Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, Daryl stopped hiding to look back at Flora.

"Hmm…" Daryl grunted, clearly upset that Flora was talking to Carter. "He doesn't deserve or appreciate her…" Flora and Carter kept talking for a little longer.

"Okay, I'll meet you down there," the blonde told Carter.

"Alright," Carter nodded and went down the manmade staircase to get to the mine. Flora turned to the direction of Daryl again and made him quickly hide behind a tree. She looked down into the water again.

"So peaceful…" sighed Flora. Daryl was able to peek an eye out of the side of the tree to watch Flora. Daryl let out a small sigh, smiling as he watched Flora. She looked away from the river after a minute and made her way down into the mine to join Carter to getting to work.

"Oh, Flora…" Daryl sighed before deciding that he should get back to the current invention that he was working on.

Meanwhile, Nami and Gustafa wound up meeting on a bridge crossing opposite sides. Gustafa was walking back to his yurt and Nami was planning to go out of the valley.

"Hi there," Gustafa greeted Nami. She didn't reply with anything, so Gustafa decided to spark up conversation. "The weather sure is nice today…" Gustafa looked at Nami curiously after a little while. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Nami replied. "Tell me if you need anything."

"You feeling bad or something?" wondered Gustafa.

"I wouldn't go that far," said Nami, rather bluntly.

"Your face looks a little red," he noticed, frowning a little. "You don't have a fever, do you?"

"You're pretty pushy," Nami told Gustafa. "Cut it out." the two stopped talking and the only noise was the sound of the flowing water below the bridge. Nami scratched the back of her head and told Gustafa that she was heading home. She started walking, but Gustafa stopped her.

"Nami," he said her name. She topped and turned back around. Gustafa walked over to Nami and pulled something out of from his inventory. "Take care of yourself." it was an apple. Nami took the apple and Gustafa walked away.

"Huh…" Nami sighed, putting the apple away and watching Gustafa walk off. She scratched the back of her head again and decided to keep going on a walk. Her face was still red, if not redder, once Gustafa had left.

Alex thought that it would be a good idea to get a few more seeds after finding some extra gold in the pockets of her overalls. Also, it would give her a chance to go hit on Marlin and try to get his attention.

"I'm certain that I'll be able to attract him today!" the redhead said, very determined. She was wearing a little bit more make-up that day, but didn't want to come off too flashy and kept on her farmer's outfit. Alex could already tell that Marlin didn't like his women to be overdressed.

Marlin was outside tending to the crops. This was the perfect time to woo him, considering Celia was nowhere in sight to make Alex look bad and she couldn't see Vesta in case she were to interfere with Alex's plans.

"Hi, Marlin," the redhead greeted Marlin when she entered Vesta's Farm, making a few faces as she posed to garner Marlin's attention. However, Marlin clearly wasn't having any of it or he didn't care much for her techniques.

"Hey," he replied, bluntly. Alex let out a breath of irritation; she could already tell that this was not her day in terms of Marlin wanting to be wooed!

"So, I'm hoping to buy a few more seeds," Alex explained, walking in front of where Marlin was watering a few crops. She put her hands on her hips and made another face as she posed. "You don't mind helping me choose, do you?"

"Nope," Marlin said. Alex refrained from letting out a loud sigh and assumed that Marlin's response meant that he didn't mind.

"I was thinking of… maybe growing a tree," the farmer explained, sitting on a fence to pose once more. After nearly falling over and catching herself, Alex decided that standing normally would probably work best. "What do you say to that, huh?"

"Well, they're pretty expensive," replied Marlin. "I don't think you have that kind of money."

"Gee, thanks," Alex mumbled. "I mean…!" the redhead stumbled with her words and started laughing, nervously.

"Hmm…" Marlin raised an eyebrow and turned away. Once Alex finally got her composure back, she decided that Marlin was probably right and it would be easiest for her to simply buy more seeds for the suitable season that they were in.

"I'll take some more tomato seeds," she decided, telling Marlin the amount of bags that she wanted. "Can't go wrong with the basics."

"Good choice," he replied. After getting the amount of bags that she requested, Alex paid Marlin and said goodbye. Once a good distance from the farm, Alex let out a loud squealing noise because she was so happy that Marlin "complimented" her.

"He likes my taste of vegetation!" gasped Alex, hugging herself. "I can already picture us going down the aisle… planting tomatoes everywhere… yes…" she sighed in a heavenly manner and rushed back to the Diamonds Ranch to plant and tend to the tomato seeds that she had just bought.


	6. Familiar Feeling

Familiar Feeling

The next day was Spring 6th. Alex was, surprisingly, up before everyone else on the ranch. In fact, she was finished with all of her work before Wyatt and Takakura even got up.

"Wyatt!" the redhead yelled at Wyatt when she spotted him heading towards the barn. Wyatt raised his inky eyebrow, wondering what she wanted. "Just come see me when you're done working! I'll be in my house!"

"Okay…" mumbled Wyatt before Alex nodded and ran off and into her house. Wyatt was a little nervous to see what Alex had in store for him, but did his chores like normal. He checked on the growing grass out in the pasture and noted that the grass was nearly fully grown. Wyatt brushed, fed, and milked Ermintrude.

After taking care of the chickens, Wyatt left the chicken coop and made his way to Alex's house. Only a few seconds after he knocked, Alex answered the door and rushed him to enter.

"Come in!" said Alex, enthusiastically. "Come in!" Sparky, Alex's dog, seemed just as excited as she was and was jumping around Wyatt before he could sit down.

"Uh," the blonde was trying to move Sparky out of his way so that he could sit down. "Could you control your dog?" Alex quickly got Sparky to calm down and Wyatt took his seat, as did Alex.

"Sorry," Alex apologized, but still beaming with excitement for whatever she had planned.

"So what is this thing that you are dying to do?" Wyatt asked before Alex exploded from anticipation. She had a notepad and pencil in front of her with a bunch of stuff written poorly and a bunch of stuff messily crossed off.

"I couldn't sleep thinking over this," began Alex with a smile. "This valley doesn't have any festivals, so I want to make festivals for the valley for everyone to participate in!" there was some silence and Alex seemed nervous as to what Wyatt felt about it.

"You know what…" he said, quietly. "That's actually not a bad idea at all." Alex's mouth turned into the biggest smile that Wyatt had seen and she nearly flew over the table to hug him.

"Do you think you could help me with festival ideas?" the redhead wondered. "It would be the first time we've successfully worked together on something. Not counting the selling thing because anyone could have done that."

"Sure, why not?" Wyatt decided with a small shrug. Alex smiled again.

"Great!" Alex said. "Well, I've set out some regulations so far. We should only have two festivals for two seasons and then three festivals for two other seasons."

"How about Summer and Winter have the three festivals?" suggested Wyatt.

"That's what I was thinking too," Alex nodded, taking note of this. "Sounds good." she then wrote four big calendars on four separate sheets of paper.

"Looks like you already have some festivals written down…" Wyatt noted, pointing at a few circled dates on random pieces of paper.

"Oh yeah…" the redhead took a look at her notes. "I added the festival essentials. New Year's Eve on the tenth of Winter, New Year's Day on the first of Spring, and the Harvest Festival on the fifth of Autumn."

"Okay, three out of ten festivals done," said Wyatt with a small nod.

"We need a swimming festival in Summer!" Alex screamed, possibly at the top of her lungs. After a flinch, Wyatt decided that it would be better to make a festival all relating to the beach.

"It can be called the Beach Festival," Wyatt stated the obvious. "People can do what they want on the beach and then there can be fireworks at night." Alex nodded.

"That's good," she said, writing it down. "It should be early in the season, so let's go with the second." Alex circled the date on the calendar for the respective season.

"There should also be a festival about music in Summer," added Wyatt. "Especially since we have a few musicians in the valley." Alex scribbled down something about this.

"Yep, we can have it at Lumina's place, then Griffin's place, and then Gustafa's place," Alex nodded. "It can be on the fourth."

"Oh, how about a festival about food in Autumn?" suggested Wyatt. "I get that it's sort of the point of the Harvest Festival, but we could make it a contest where people can cook and make the best dish."

"And also…" Alex started to formulate an idea, "There can be an eating competition! I like that idea. But a person can only enter one of the two. That can be on the eighth." she circled the date. That made the festivals in Autumn all planned.

"So let's think of one more for Spring," Wyatt said. "It can be on the seventh, so we can have the festival tomorrow."

"Ooh, look who's getting un-anti-social!" the redhead replied with a small chuckle. "How about a Flower Festival! I heard of a festival in a village where they have a bunch of shops and they have flowers on display and they have a dance!"

Wyatt seemed to stare off once Alex mentioned the part about the dance. However, Alex kept talking about the ideas for the festival and writing stuff down.

"They also vote for a Harvest Goddess, but we can do that next year since we don't have enough time this year," she said, circling the seventh on the Spring calendar. "Wyatt! Are you listening?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled. "Oh, yep. I'm listening. Dancing, great. Sounds good." Wyatt nodded. Alex looked at him curiously, but said that it was nice that they had all the Spring festivals accounted for.

"Let's think of one more festival for Summer so that we'll be done with it," decided Alex.

"Oh," Wyatt piped up. Alex lifted her head, curiously. "I know a good one. This is something that me and my parents did annually in the city. We would float bamboo floats down the big river near our house and make a wish on the float, hoping that it stays afloat."

"Aw, that's really cute!" Alex said with a smile. "That's a perfect one to have a date for! We can float them down the river at sunset and before if people have a date then they go on a picnic. How about that?"

"Sure," the blonde replied, "although I feel like you just want these cute events to try and woo Marlin…" Wyatt raised an eyebrow. Alex started laughing sheepishly as she finished writing about the last day in Summer. She wrote that it would be on the ninth.

"No…" Alex said, quietly. "Speaking of romantic festivals, though…"

"Oh, what?" sighed Wyatt.

"Well, there has to be a Starry Night Festival!" insisted Alex. "You and your date go to dinner, the man cooks of course, and then you go out and look at the stars! So romantic…"

"We should probably also have alternatives for the people without dates…" Wyatt recommended, pointing to himself.

"We can sort that out around the time it actually happens," Alex decided, writing down the idea. "It can be on the sixth!"

"So only one more and in Winter, right?" Wyatt asked. Alex nodded and thought that the third would be the prime time to have the festival. "We should probably think of the festival first." he laughed.

"I know," she replied.

"Shouldn't we have a festival to respect the dead?" suggested Wyatt. Alex mulled it over and then agreed that it was a good idea.

"It can be the Firefly Festival!" the redhead decided. "We can get Daryl to make Firefly Lanterns from ores at the mine and float them to sea!"

"Firefly Festival?" Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that usually in Summer?"

"Umm… yeah, I guess…" mumbled Alex. "We already get fireflies in the valley, though, so it'd be pointless to have it in Summer! Plus, Winter is a more somber season and would fit the festival better."

"Sure," Wyatt shrugged. Alex smiled and wrote down the idea.

"Okay, I'm gonna go show this to everyone in town!" she said, holding the papers. "You'd better come tomorrow!" the two left Alex's house with Alex running very quickly to get around the valley. Wyatt sighed and shook his head.

The next day was Spring 7th. It was the day of the Flower Festival. The villagers decided that it would be most fitting to have the festival at the Goddess Pond. Wyatt and Alex finished their chores fairly quickly and made their way to the forest area.

"It looks like they haven't started the dancing yet," Alex noticed.

"You didn't specify when it should be, did you?" Wyatt asked. The redhead paused for a moment and realized that she didn't do this.

"Well," mumbled Alex before resolving the problem, "it should be an all day thing! Better get some music playing now!" and with that, she rushed off to get the dance part of the festival going.

"Hmm…" sighed Wyatt after realizing that he would have to try and be social for this festival. He mumbled something about it being the first time in a while this would happen. Wyatt decided to take a seat on one of the chairs that had been set up and wait for someone to talk to him first.

Chris, Wally, and Hugh were at the festival fairly early, as they were early risers. They were admiring the displayed flowers as a family.

"There isn't really a huge selection, but they're all pretty and smell nice," Chris said with a smile, looking at a small yellow flower.

"The festival was created only yesterday!" Wally said. "Cut them some slack." Chris giggled and said that she wouldn't complain about it anymore.

"This is a girly festival, right, Dad?" wondered Hugh, turning to his dad. Wally and Chris both laughed at this.

"Yes, I suppose it is," he replied, "but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the festival! Flowers are meant to be enjoyed by all, not just by one gender!" Hugh nodded and said that he thought that the flowers were pretty.

Gustafa quickly made his way to the party and wound up there at generally the same time as Lumina and the others who lived in the mansion.

"Hey, Wyatt," the musician decided to come up to Wyatt and start up some conversation. Wyatt gave a small wave as a greeting. "Nice job planning this festival."

"Eh… it was mostly Alex's idea, this one," he mumbled in response, "but thanks." Wyatt nodded. Gustafa looked at Wyatt with a curious look on his face.

"You know, I can tell already that you're pretty similar to Nami," Gustafa told him.

"The other redhead, right?" Wyatt asked for clarification. Gustafa nodded and explained that Nami was also rather anti-social, modest, and kept to herself.

"I wonder if that means you would get on or not get on…" he thought about it and then chuckled. Wyatt didn't really respond to what Gustafa had said, so he changed the subject. "So, do you like flowers?" Wyatt shrugged.

"They're alright," the rancher told him.

"What about dancing?" Gustafa asked, recalling that the festival would include a dance. "Are you any good at it?"

"Sorta," Wyatt replied. "I used to go to a place in the city with someone and we would dance. I haven't really danced since the two of us… uh, grew apart." he explained.

"Oh, that's too bad!" said Gustafa, referring to the fact that Wyatt hadn't danced in a while. "Maybe you will today."

"Maybe," Wyatt shrugged, but it sounded rather insincere. Gustafa said that he would chat with Wyatt later, but wanted to talk to others, especially Alex to thank her for coming up with a good idea for a festival.

By noon, practically everyone in the valley was in the forest area (the people who weren't able to go were too busy, such as Vesta to farm, the twins to work on fireworks, and Carter working at the dig site).

"Hey there, Lumina," Rock walked up to her and greeted her. Lumina turned to him and scowled.

"Rock, I don't want any silly games with Auntie Romana and Sebastian here," she told him, crossing her arms. Muffy had overheard Lumina's voice and turned over to see the conversation.

"No games, honest!" Rock replied, holding one hand on his heart and the other up in the air. "I actually was just about to ask you to dance… seeing as everyone else seems to be too shy to dance."

"Hmph!" Lumina groaned and crossed her arms and walked away. Rock simply stood there and watched her leave before sighing and walking off.

"Hey," Muffy walked up to the piano player and got her attention. She startled Lumina when she came up to her. "You know, you should probably give Rock more of a chance."

"He's always been like this, though…" she sighed. "So immature."

"Isn't it a little immature of you to be saying that?" Muffy replied. Lumina was silent and then slowly uncrossed her arms before nervously scratching her arm.

"I… guess so," replied Lumina. She was silent for a little while longer and then a small smile formed on her face. "You know, I'll give him another chance. Thanks, Muffy! You're very smart."

"No problem," Muffy nodded and smiled back. "Years of practice with boys will give you some knowledge of how they work." she winked and laughed. Lumina laughed back and went back to find Rock.

"Ooh, that Muffy…" scowled Alex, her hands balled up into fists. She was standing next to Wyatt.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked. "That was a nice thing that she did." Alex sighed and shook her head.

"I didn't really even invite her here, but whatever!" the redhead stormed off.

"She isn't gonna get Marlin's attention with an attitude like that…" Wyatt mumbled once she had gone to find other people to socialize with.

"Hey, Wyatt," Celia walked up to Wyatt and greeted him, smiling. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she held out the chair facing Wyatt.

"Go ahead," Wyatt lifted his hand and ushered that she take a seat. Celia nodded and did so.

"How are you enjoying the festival?" she asked him. Wyatt explained that it was pretty nice.

"I'm more interested to see how it looks next year, though," the rancher explained. "It's a little lackluster since we don't have the entirety of the festival going this year and a small selection of flowers."

"I sorta like the festival this way," Celia replied. "It's simple, and it's not like the valley is really used to having festivals. I know what you mean about being excited to see the festival next year. I'm excited, too." Wyatt nodded, but then was distracted by something.

He noticed Alex trying to woo Marlin once again. Celia caught on to what Wyatt had noticed and also took a look at what was going on.

"So… this is a fun song," Alex said, clearly trying to get Marlin to dance with her even though he hadn't a clue.

"You know, Marlin is very oblivious of the fact that Alex likes her," Celia brought the conversation back between her and Wyatt with a small laugh.

"I've noticed this…" Wyatt nodded. The song that was playing changed and Celia started moving around in her seat to the beat of the song.

"Huh… I really like this song!" the brunette said with a laugh. "Do you wanna dance maybe?" Wyatt opened his mouth, shut it, opened it, and shut it again. He thought about the idea for a minute.

"No thanks," he said. Celia tried to get him to dance, but Wyatt seemed firm to not dance. "Maybe next year… I need to brush up on my skills before I actually dance."

"Well… alright," Celia smiled and nodded, getting up and joining the circle of people who were dancing together. Wyatt looked on and seemed to drift off into a different time. He wasn't really fixated on one person dancing, but seemed to be fixated on the atmosphere of everyone dancing. Even though he wasn't really drifting off that badly after the song, Alex noticed him spacing out.

"What's the problem there, my friend?" the redhead asked, smiling even though she had sorta been shot down by Marlin to dance. "You seem a little out of it."

"Um…" Wyatt mumbled and scratched the back of his head. "Everyone dancing is just giving me a familiar feeling. It's taking be back to a time where I went to the city and would dance… this one girl…" he sighed.

"Do you want to talk to me about it?" Alex asked, seriously. Wyatt stood up and shook his head.

"No, it's fine," he said, quickly. "It was a good festival; good job. I think I'm gonna go home now."

"But…!" she reached out for him before he left, but Wyatt was already walking too quickly for Alex to catch up. She frowned and sighed, but decided that he should probably be left alone. Alex turned around and went back to the festival and went around chatting with other people.

The Flower Festival ended about an hour after Wyatt left and everyone agreed that it was a great festival. Everyone was excited for the next festival and how better the Flower Festival would be next year.


	7. Only If for a Night

Only If for a Night

The next day was Spring 8th. Wyatt and Alex were assigned to visit Van again today by Takakura.

"He comes every third and eighth of the month," Takakura explained to them. "I won't assign you to go together anymore now that you're hopefully on a good schedule." Takakura then left to go to the city.

"So when will you be ready?" Wyatt asked, knowing that the crops were more work at this point because Wyatt didn't have too many animals.

"Um… fairly soon," Alex replied. "I harvested most of my crops yesterday, so I only have a few to water right now." Wyatt nodded and said that he would be in the pasture when she was ready.

After Wyatt took care of the chickens and put Ermintrude inside because of the chance of rain later in the day, he tended to the actual grass. He was growing more of it because he planned to buy more livestock soon.

"Hey!" Alex called out to Wyatt. He hopped over the fence and Alex explained that she was finished, but then looked at Wyatt's hair curiously. "Is your hair… graying?" she wondered, reaching out to it.

"No," replied Wyatt, quickly moving before she touched his hair. "It's silver anyway. My hair changes between silver and gray blonde frequently… I like silver hair."

"That's weird," murmured the redhead. "Why does it do that?" Wyatt shrugged. Alex decided to drop the idea and the two made their way to find Van. He already had his stand set up.

"I'll go first," Wyatt decided. Alex nodded and let him go ahead. There was nothing that he wanted to buy, so he quickly sold what he had to sell and said goodbye.

"You get a good amount?"

"Yeah, a bit more than last time," he replied. "I didn't do too much foraging. I'm not that keen on getting more livestock just yet." Alex nodded.

"Okay, my turn!" she beamed and skipped to Van to sell what she had to sell. Van didn't have anything interesting for her either, so she said goodbye.

"How did you do?" the blonde wondered. Alex revealed how much she made and Wyatt was fairly stunned. "Wow, you're doing really well with the crops, aren't you?"

"Yes I am thank you very much!" Alex replied with a large smile. "I also did a lot of foraging, though. I just needed to make sure that I had enough money so that I could get seeds to grow an apple tree."

"An apple tree, huh?" Wyatt said, putting his hands in his pockets and starting to walk away from Van's stall. "Why's that?"

"I… had a weird dream last night," Alex began. The two stopped in front of the ranch plot so that Alex could tell her story. "My grandma visited me in a dream. She gave me advice… it was strange… and so surreal. But she just told me to concentrate on my farming and said that a tree would really help. I figured that an apple tree would be best because in the dream we were surrounded by apple trees."

"That's very profound," Wyatt told her. "I like it." Alex smiled again and thanked him.

"You're being a lot nicer recently," she told him, making Wyatt shrug. "Now if only I could get you to crack a smile or laugh!"

"Don't know what to tell you there," Wyatt replied, shrugging once more. Alex chuckled a little.

"Whatever," said Alex. "Hey, I'm going to Vesta's Farm now if you wanna go. Maybe you could hit on Celia. Or maybe Flora since the campsite is nearby."

"I'm fine, thanks," he replied and walked back onto the ranch.

"Suit yourself," Alex shrugged and walked off.

The next day was Spring 9th. It was a cloudy day and everyone was being very lazy around the town because of it.

At the campsite, Carter had just woken up. Flora hadn't been up for too much longer than Carter. Today was a day off for them.

"Good morning," Carter greeted his assistant. Flora greeted him back. "Oh, did you not make food yet?"

"No," she replied. "I'm gonna learn to cook today. I know how bad my cooking is now and I really want to work on it. I'm gonna see Ruby soon."

"Really?" wondered Carter. "Why did you come up with that idea?"

"Well, I had a dream last night where my grandma visited me and spoke to me," Flora explained. "To put it bluntly, she said that my cooking was horrible and that I need to concentrate and focus on making my cooking better. Especially since all I do besides it is mine and fish."

"Alright then," Carter said, smiling. "I hope it goes well today! What are we gonna eat, then?"

"There's leftovers from last night," Flora replied. "Hopefully it'll be the last bad food that we have to eat!" she joked and grinned, getting out some curry from the night before.

"Oh boy…" he looked into his plate of black mush. "I hope so."

The next day was Spring 10th. It was the last day of Spring, so Alex and the farmers at Vesta's Farm were getting all their seasonal crops harvested and preparing to plant seeds of plants that grew in the Summer.

"It's going to be hot, soon," Griffin noted. He and Muffy were together at the Blue Bar right before it opened for its late night clientele.

"It is," Muffy explained, smiling as she wiped a mug with a rag, "and then people will want to come here at night for a nice, cold drink on a nice night. Great for service!"

"You sure are chipper recently…" noted Griffin. Muffy nodded.

"I didn't think that I would bounce back this quickly from my last relationship, but I met someone in the city earlier today!" she explained, letting out a small sigh. "Normally, I wouldn't seek out someone else so quickly."

"Why did you decide to tackle a relationship this quickly then?" Griffin wondered, tuning his guitar because he was planning to play it later in the night.

"It was so strange…" Muffy turned around and set down the mug that she was cleaning. "My grandmother talked to me last night, in a dream of course, and told me to get back in the game instead of moping about finding the right one. I have to concentrate on trying to find the right one."

"It's good that you had such an inspirational dream, then," replied Griffin with a smile. Muffy smiled and nodded back.

"So I assume this means that you'll be lenient in giving me more time off…" the blonde replied, coyly. Muffy put her hands behind her back and gave Griffin a playful look. He sighed and shook his head with a small chuckle.

"Good to see that your grandmother's advice didn't change your personality much…"


	8. Your Embrace

Your Embrace

The next day was Summer 1st. It was the first day of Summer, which was very exciting for everyone. Wyatt changed his outfit to a simple gray t-shirt and bright blue pants. He had on the same American shoes.

"Nice outfit," Alex told Wyatt when she saw him. "Very simple, but fashionable. I approve. That's quite a big thing to get an approval from a model."

"But you're not a model," Wyatt replied, raising an eyebrow. Alex scoffed.

"Yeah, well, I WAS a model!" she burst out in a yell. Wyatt shook his head a little and went off to take care of the animals. He decided to place an order for a sheep so that he would be able to get it the next day.

Once it got to noon, Takakura had returned to the ranch and called on Wyatt.

"I brought a horse from the town that I went to today," he told the rancher. "You don't need to pay or anything, just keep good care of him." the horse was black.

"Wow, thanks, Takakura," Wyatt thanked him. Takakura nodded in response and walked off. Alex stormed over, clearly upset.

"Why didn't I get a horse!" she whined.

"Can you even ride a horse?" asked Wyatt. Alex murmured something under her breath.

"Well, can you!" barked Alex. Wyatt nodded and quickly hopped on the horse's back before riding around the ranch in a circle and hopping off of the horse. "Anyone can do that." she insisted that she could ride the horse, but couldn't even get on him.

"I think we've found the answer to my question," the blonde replied, pushing the horse into the stable. "Guess I've got to set up another feed box."

"What are you gonna name him?" Alex asked in a quick change of tone. Wyatt thought about it for a few seconds.

"How about Ray?" he said. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Ray?" she wondered. "And he's a black horse? Come on."

"I like contrast, alright?" Wyatt replied. "He's staying Ray."

"Yeah, I've noticed that you like contrast, mister black-as-coal eyebrows and one-day-blonde-one-day-silver hair," Alex replied, in a snarky manner. "I see that it's blonde today."

"Thanks for noticing," Wyatt said, deadpan. He walked inside to get everything in the stable set up for Ray. When he finished, Alex was waiting for him outside.

"You know, if you get that sheep tomorrow at noon, you'd better still participate in the Beach Festival," the redhead told him. Wyatt nodded.

"Yes, I will," he said. "I already told you that I would help you with all the festivals."

"Okay… just making sure…" Wyatt started walking towards his house and Alex followed. "So who are you planning to watch the fireworks with?" she wondered, nosily.

"I don't know," replied Wyatt, putting his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. "I'll probably just watch them by myself or just with the group."

"Aw, that's boring!" Alex said. "I'm at least TRYING to watch them with Marlin in hopes that he cuddles with me or something. It'll be so magical… he'll gaze at the beauty of the fireworks and then look at me and notice that my beauty matches the fireworks… unlike Celia. I'M the prettiest in the valley and my looks are like fireworks!"

"Really… what the hell are you talking about?" Wyatt asked her, genuinely worried and confused about what she was saying.

"Basically, I'm going to at least try to watch the fireworks with my boo," the redhead replied. "You should try to do the same with someone else."

"Like who?" wondered Wyatt. "Muffy?"

"NO!" barked Alex, scoffing, sighing, and then shaking her head. "Just cause she's single now! And easy! Just forget it; do what you want, pal." she walked away to go back to working on her crops.

"So I'll see you at the festival, I guess, then," Wyatt mumbled back.

The next day was Summer 2nd. It was a great day for going to the beach: hot, but not too hot. The sun was shining brightly.

"Morning, Wyatt!" Alex greeted him early in the morning when the two left their respective houses. Wyatt waved back. "Are you excited for the festival!"

"Sure am," he replied in a monotonous tone, so Alex wasn't really sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Uh, okay!" she replied. "Great!" Alex got to work on her crops and finished quickly so that she could go to the beach. She didn't even bother putting on a proper outfit for farming and just had her bathing suit on in anticipation.

Later in the day, when Wyatt was finished tending to the livestock, Takakura appeared with the sheep that Wyatt ordered.

"Here you go," he said, pushing the animal into the stable. "Take good care of him." Wyatt nodded and Takakura walked off.

Wyatt went inside to set up the feed bin for the sheep, naming him Walker. Once he was taken care of Wyatt decided to go change into some simple blue swimming trunks before going to the beach. He also put on a pair of sunglasses.

Everyone, or at least most people, from the valley was all at the beach. It was a very exciting festival to have and Alex was very pleased that the turnout was so good.

"Wyatt!" she called out to him. "I'm glad that you're here! Everyone's enjoying themselves, but we haven't set up all the umbrellas just yet!"

"I'm on it," Wyatt nodded, grabbing one of the remaining umbrellas that had yet to be set up. He stuck it in the ground where Muffy, Griffin, and Rock were laying because they were waiting for an umbrella.

"Thanks," Muffy thanked Wyatt with a smile and a small wink. Wyatt nodded and moved on to the next umbrella.

"This was a great idea for a festival, Wyatt!" Daryl told him when he set up an umbrella for him, the twins, and Cody.

"You can thank Alex," the blonde nodded. "She did most, if not all the planning for the festivals."

"Either way, you both helped," Patrick said with a smile.

"And now me and Patrick can show off our fireworks!" Kassey said. "It's been a long time since we've been able to use fireworks here in the valley. We usually just ship them out of the valley since we don't really have good reason to use them here."

"That's nice, then," Wyatt said. "Maybe the fireworks will inspire you to make a painting or something, Cody." Cody replied with a gruff-sounding noise.

"Maybe," he said. "Hopefully." Wyatt waved and went on to prop up the next umbrella. He continued to set up a few more umbrellas before setting up the last one. Only Celia was sitting under it.

"Why don't you join me, Wyatt?" she suggested, patting the sand next to her to usher that he sit down. Wyatt let out a small shrug and decided to take her advice and sit down.

"How are you enjoying the festival so far?" Wyatt wondered, looking on to the ocean. From where Celia was sitting the two were able to see everyone else on the beach.

"I'm liking it," Celia told him. "I just came back from a little swim in the ocean, as you can probably tell. It was nice. Have you been in the water yet?" Wyatt shook his head.

"No, not yet," he explained. "We can go swimming soon if you want, though. I'm pretty hot."

"Sounds good," Celia smiled and nodded. There was some silence and Celia decided to bring something up out of the blue. "This is quite random, but I hope that we get some female children in the valley so that Hugh has someone to play with."

"I get that…" Wyatt said. Celia had said this because she noticed Hugh making a sandcastle by himself. He looked like he was having fun making it by himself, though. His parents would come over and help out a little, too, especially Wally. "I'm sure that there will be."

"Yeah," Celia nodded. "I'm sure that Rock and Lumina will have a girl." she giggled a little. This confused Wyatt a little.

"Rock and Lumina?" he wondered.

"Oh, they're not together or anything right now, but I'm sure that they'll wind up married," the brunette explained. "I can see it."

"Alright… female intuition I guess?" Wyatt shrugged a little.

"I guess so…" Celia mused with a small smile. "Okay, let's go swim!" Wyatt nodded and the two rushed off to the shores.

"Don't you wanna watch the fireworks with Flora or something?" Patrick asked Daryl as the group sat under their umbrella. Daryl mumbled something.

"What was that?" Cody wondered, turning his head.

"Nothing!" he snapped. "Um, I guess there's no harm in asking." Daryl scratched his messy hair and let out a long sigh.

Nami and Gustafa were at the shores with their feet in the water.

"Do you like Summer?" Gustafa asked Nami with a small smile. Nami let out an indifferent-sounding grunt.

"It's very hot," she replied, rather obviously. Gustafa nodded and ran his hands across the ocean water a little.

"It makes us appreciate the colder weather," he said, before letting out a little laugh. "At least until Winter comes, that is." Nami nodded.

"My favorite season is Autumn," Nami told Gustafa. "It's the only season where I like the flowers that grow in the valley. And it's very cool."

"I guess I'll have to pick you some flowers come Autumn, then," Gustafa smiled and said. Nami placed her head between her knees, using her arms to rest her head on.

"Don't bother…" she said. Gustafa let out a little sigh, but brushed it off and imitated Nami's act and kept looking out into the distance.

"You're not ditching me again, are you?" Lumina asked Rock. She walked over to the umbrella where he was with Muffy and Griffin.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Rock replied. Lumina let out a huff and crossed her arms.

"Every time you say you want to do something with me you always flake!" she replied, loudly. Rock recoiled a little from Lumina's voice but then let out a small smile, putting his hand to his hair.

"We're definitely watching the fireworks together," the blonde said, flashing Lumina an impish grin. She seemed to lighten up and uncrossed her arms and let a small smile appear.

"Good," Lumina nodded and then left. Rock let out a sigh of relief and went back to lying down and relaxing. He asked Muffy and Griffin what their plans were for the fireworks and they said that they were going to watch them together as friends.

"Really?" he asked. "That's lame. You should watch the fireworks with Wyatt or Alex or someone single." Rock tried to persuade the two of them. Griffin shook his head.

"Alex seems to be trying to get Marlin's attention…" he explained. "It looks like she's trying to do it right now." Griffin pointed and this seemed to be the case. Marlin was sitting near Vesta with his arms crossed, looking towards Celia and Wyatt. Alex was nearby doing some pose with a ton of make-up.

"I think Celia wants to watch the fireworks with Wyatt," Muffy told Rock. "Even though Wyatt seems indifferent. He's cute though, so if she doesn't watch the fireworks with him I'll jump at that chance."

"Thanks, Muffy," Griffin sighed. Muffy giggled and said that she was kidding. "Why do I find that hard to believe…?" he sighed again.

The sun started setting and the sunset looked beautiful. Everyone was out of the water and they were all enjoying the view of the sunset on the serene waters. Mostly everyone had picked out their partners or group to watch the fireworks with.

"So…" Celia said, quietly. "Do you have anyone to watch the fireworks with?" she asked Wyatt, clasping her hands together and smiling.

"No, I don't," he shook his head. Celia nodded.

"Neither do I…" she toyed with her fingers a little before continuing the conversation. "Maybe we could watch them together." Wyatt turned to her and looked at her for a moment. He then nodded and Celia smiled.

"We can do that," Wyatt said. For a moment, it seemed like a smile was going to appear on his lips, but it didn't happen. Celia smiled and nodded.

"Sounds good!"

Alex was still working up the courage to ask Marlin to watch the fireworks with her. She asked a few people for pointers, but she didn't really listen and kept freaking out.

"Whatever!" Alex mouthed a scream, throwing her arms into the air. "I'll just go up to him and ask." she finally gained the courage to walk over to him. Alex greeted him and Marlin greeted her back.

"Hey…" he replied, coolly. Alex sort of held her breath, waiting for the words to just come out. "So who are you watching the fireworks with?" Marlin said, catching Alex off guard.

"Um," she paused, putting a finger on her lips for a second or two. "No one." Marlin nodded and stood up.

"Well, do you wanna watch the fireworks with me?" he asked. Alex held her breath again, but this time out of joy. She contained a squeal and finally composed herself. Alex nodded.

"I'd love to," she told him, coyly. Marlin nodded and the two decided on a place to watch the fireworks.

Soon the sun was gone and night had fallen across the valley.

"We're about to start the fireworks!" Kassey announced.

"We hope that you enjoy them!" Patrick announced.

Everyone was all scattered across the beach with either one other person or a group of people. Daryl failed at asking Flora to watch the fireworks, so she was watching them with Carter and Daryl watched them with Cody and the others.

"Wow," Alex gasped as the fireworks started. "They're beautiful!"

"Yeah…" Marlin mumbled, watching them. Alex turned to him for a moment and quickly looked back at the sky. She wanted to hold his hand or something, but decided against it and simply enjoyed the fireworks in his company.

"You know, I'm glad that you didn't ditch me this time…" Lumina told Rock, blushing. Rock was unable to see this though because the two were looking up at the skies.

"I'm done being a flake to you and anyone," Rock said. "I swear! Especially if the result is something like watching fireworks every time." Lumina giggled.

"We'll see…" she said. "Ooh…"

"It's cooler now…" Gustafa noted. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, I am," Nami replied. "The fireworks are very loud, though. But I'm mostly pleased."

"Will you ever be fully pleased?" joked Gustafa with a smile. Nami was silent and the two kept watching the fireworks.

"It's nice to watch fireworks with friends," Muffy explained to her co-worker. "It's very tiring to have to do every romantic festival when you're in a relationship."

"I'm sure it is…" Griffin mumbled with a small laugh. "The fireworks are pretty great. We've been missing out on Kassey and Patrick's fireworks for a long time, haven't we?"

"We have…" she replied. "I honestly don't know how I lasted this long without looking at such a pretty sight! Well, I mean, besides the fact that I work with you and see you every day, Griffin."

"Shut up," Griffin chuckled. Muffy giggled and the two returned to watching the fireworks in silence.

The second the fireworks had started, Wyatt had stood behind Celia and was holding her the whole time. Celia held his arms back as the two watched the fireworks, not saying anything to each other. The two were in their embrace for the entirety of the fireworks and no one had noticed because they were far enough from others to have not been seen. The second that the fireworks were over, Wyatt slowly let go of Celia and ended the embrace.

"The fireworks were great," the brunette said with a smile. Wyatt nodded in agreement.

"I'll walk you home," he told Celia. She nodded and the two walked back to Vesta's Farm. Once Celia got to the door, she turned around and thanked Wyatt for walking her home.

"It was a good night," Celia told him. Wyatt nodded.

"Bye," he waved and started walking away. Celia watched him walk back to his ranch for a while before going inside her house and going to bed.


	9. Music Sounds Better With You

Music Sounds Better With You

The next day was Summer 3rd. The Music Festival would be coming up quickly, so Alex was already pretty preoccupied with the festival. Wyatt was out in the field tending to his animals.

"Morning, Wyatt," Alex greeted Wyatt. She was taking a break from watering her crops by filling up her watering can.

"Good morning," the blonde replied, brushing his sheep. His pasture was growing grass very well and was nearly half full with grass. "Did you have fun at the festival?" Alex nodded.

"It was really fun," she explained. "I still can't believe that Marlin asked me to watch the fireworks! It was amazing. How was it for you?"

"It was really nice, actually," Wyatt replied. "I'm excited for the next festival."

"Then you'll be up for helping me later with the Music Festival!" Alex concluded, putting her hands together. Wyatt let out a little sigh and then nodded.

"Just let me do my ranch work," he told her. Alex nodded and said that she would need to do the same. Once done, the two went to set up for the next day.

The next day was Summer 4th. It was the day of the Music Festival that started at the mansion. It was going to be there for the majority of the day until it was the evening. There was a lot of food there, which was mostly made the day before.

"Are you excited to be playing today?" Alex asked Lumina, who was sitting by the piano.

"I'm really nervous," she explained, putting her hands together. "I practiced all day yesterday."

"I'm sure that you'll do great!" Rock said, enthusiastically. He was spending the entirety of the day pumping Lumina up. She laughed and smiled.

"Thank you," Lumina thanked him and sat down at her piano bench.

"Okay, everyone," Wyatt had everyone be quiet. "Lumina's going to perform her first song." everyone applauded her before she took a deep breath and started her performance. She performed very well and by the end everyone was clapping for her. Some were even cheering.

"You did so well!" Rock congratulated her when she stood up and walked towards him.

"Well, you did help me get the confidence," she said, blushing a little and giving him a big hug.

"Hey there, Wyatt," Celia greeted Wyatt. He waved back. "I didn't see you at all yesterday."

"I was busy working to set up for the festival," Wyatt explained, nodding slowly.

"I see…" replied Celia with a small nod. "Did you like Lumina's performance?"

"Yeah," he told her. "It was very good. She seemed really nervous before, so it's good that she didn't choke up or anything."

"I think it was Rock that gave her that little bit of motivation," Celia explained, giggling a little into her arm, which was balled into a fist.

"I guess so…" murmured Wyatt.

"Hey, Wyatt!" Tim called out to the blonde, ushering that he go over to where he and Ruby were. Wyatt waved a goodbye to Celia and walked off.

"Humph…" Celia let out a small sigh and walked off in the opposite direction.

"We just wanted to thank you for all the festivals that you planned and helped prepare," Ruby told him. "We told this to Alex, too, but we're just happy that Rock has something to be excited and happy for."

"Besides Lumina, that is," joked Tim with a laugh, although he could have only been half-joking.

"You're welcome," he replied. "A lot of people in the valley seem to be benefiting from all the festivals, which is really nice."

"How about you?" wondered Ruby. "Are the festivals good for you?" Wyatt paused and then shrugged.

"It's not much different from city life, to be quite honest with you," he told her. "It's… fun though."

"That's good," Ruby smiled. The party continued for longer at the mansion until they were to move on to the bar.

"Before we go, Lumina is going to play us one more song," Alex said. "So give it up!" everyone cheered and Lumina seemed more confident this time, not needing a pep talk. However, this time as she performed, she messed up a few times. This didn't stop everyone from applauding once she finished, but Lumina was very upset with herself. She and Rock stayed in the back while everyone started moving towards the bar.

"I can't believe that I messed up!" cried Lumina, sulking.

"First of all, Lumina," Rock began, "it was only a few mistakes. Second, you aren't perfect at playing the piano yet, so you're gonna make some mistakes."

"Yeah, but…" Lumina began, but Rock shushed her.

"I'm not going to allow you to talk this way until at least tomorrow," he insisted. Lumina let out a small sigh, but then nodded.

"Now can you get your hand off of my mouth?" she said, muffled because this was the way that Rock had shushed her.

"Oh," Rock took his hand off of her mouth. "Yeah." Lumina let out a small chuckle and then the two followed the group heading towards the bar.

Obviously, not everyone would fit inside the bar, so some people stayed outside. The windows were opened so that the people outside could hear Griffin's music. The appeal of staying outside was to watch the sun set, as it was close to that time.

"Okay, my guitar's all tuned," Griffin said. "Is everyone ready?" they all replied positively. Griffin nodded and played a simple, soft melody. Everyone listened in silence and enjoyed the tune. Once it finished, everyone gave him a round of applause. Griffin thanked them all.

"So does this mean free drinks?" Wally called out. Griffin replied with a hearty chuckle.

"Maybe for some of you," he said, "if you're lucky enough. Or get me drunk enough."

"Griffin, stop," Muffy laughed. "We'd probably never get money if you did that!" Griffin agreed with that statement and then they started serving drinks. It was less of a party at the bar and more of a relaxed time because most people were just watching the sunset at one point. Most people migrated outside until the sun set and Griffin was going to perform once more.

This next tune was a lot more upbeat in comparison, but because it was a simple guitar song it still wasn't too intense. Everyone clapped for Griffin once his performance was over and everyone migrated to Gustafa's yurt.

At his yurt, everyone was outside. This was because it was finally nighttime, so it was very cool and nice outside.

"Ready?" Gustafa asked, readying his guitar. Everyone nodded and he began to play. He and Griffin played similar music, but Gustafa's music was noticeably more upbeat and more complex. The tune was rather short, but good nonetheless.

"That was good, wasn't it?" Cody asked Nami. The two were with Muffy and Carter.

"It was good," Nami replied, bluntly.

"You should go tell him that," Muffy suggested, smiling at Nami. She was silent.

"I'd rather not…" she replied, scratching the back of her head.

"It wouldn't hurt to give a little compliment, would it?" Carter asked the redhead. Nami was silent again and put her hands in her pockets.

"No," she told him. Nami looked into the sky and scratched the back of her head again. "I wanna see his second performance first. He could have just gotten lucky the first time."

"Alright then, Nami…" mumbled Cody, crossing his arms.

There wasn't too much time after the first performance before Gustafa gave the final performance of the night because some people would have to be going to bed soon. Gustafa played a soft melody, but it still seemed like it was a complicated tune. Everyone gave him a round of applause and the people who had to leave left. There actually weren't too many people left.

"Well, are you going to say that he did a good job now?" Alex asked Nami. She was silent and looked at her with a curious look.

"How did you know that I was meant to do that?" asked Nami.

"Because… I'm nosy," replied Alex. Nami sighed and shook her head, not answering Alex. She decided to just walk up to Gustafa once he had finished talking to Chris, Wally, and Hugh.

"Hey, Nami," Gustafa greeted her as she walked up. "Did you enjoy the performance?" Nami nodded slowly.

"I was going to tell you that, but you answered it for me," replied Nami. "Yes, I enjoyed your performances. I've never really heard you play before."

"Well, I'm glad that you liked it," Gustafa said before walking away to talk to other people. Nami just stared forward and scratched the back of her head.

"So did you tell him?" Cody asked, walking up to Nami.

"Yep," she replied, and then walked away back to the inn.


	10. I Care

I Care

The next day was Summer 5th. The chores around the ranch were done as they usually were. Alex seemed bummed as she was working on her crops and Wyatt noticed this. After he finished tending to the animals, he went over to her to see what the problem was.

"Hey, what's up?" wondered Wyatt. Alex looked up slowly and flashed a smile for a few seconds before looking back at her crops.

"Not much…" she replied. "Just watering crops. The usual."

"You seem a little down," Wyatt said. Alex looked at him.

"You always look down!" she barked at him. Wyatt twitched a little in retaliation and Alex quickly let out a sigh. "Erm, sorry. Yeah… I guess I am down. I haven't talked to Marlin since the Beach Festival. I didn't even talk to him at the last festival!"

"Why didn't you go talk to him?" he wondered.

"Because ever since he asked me to watch the fireworks I thought that he would be a bit more forward with our relationship…" Alex admitted.

"Marlin doesn't seem like the type of guy to be like that…" Wyatt murmured, raising an eyebrow.

"I know," replied Alex, "but still! I thought that I was finally getting through to him… He just needs to give up trying to get Celia. Even if you don't like her you should go after her so that I have more of a chance!"

"Alex…" Wyatt shook his head and put his hands in his pockets, walking off. It seemed like he wanted to laugh at such a ridiculous idea, but he just kept the same expression that he always had.

"Fine, I'll deal with him not caring about me on my own!" Alex yelled back. She started muttering things under her breath as she finished up work on her crops.

The next day was Summer 6th. Wyatt decided to talk a small walk around the valley after riding around on his horse. It was nice to get some fresh air instead of being stuck inside.

"Wyatt!" a voice called out to him as he crossed the bridge from his ranch. Celia was waving and walked over to greet the rancher.

"Hey, Celia," he greeted her back.

"What are you up to?" she wondered, in a pleasant tone.

"I'm just walking around," Wyatt explained. "Just getting some fresh air."

"That's nice!" Celia smiled and replied. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Wyatt replied, but with not as much enthusiasm as Celia seemed to have hoped for. The two walked together in silence for a while until they crossed the bridge again towards the town area.

"Um, actually, I think I need to take care of some crops," Celia said.

"Oh, okay," Wyatt nodded. "I understand. I'll see you later." he waved and continued on his walk. Celia looked at him for a little while and let out a small sigh before going back to Vesta's Farm.

The next day was Summer 7th. Celia called Muffy over to her house for some girl talk. Vesta was in the city for work, but Marlin was in the kitchen half-listening to the girls' conversation. It was a day off, but he was in the kitchen cleaning dishes.

"I guess it's good that I decided not to chase after him or anything seeing as he makes you this way," Muffy said. This was the main line that made Marlin start listening in on the conversation.

"Yeah," Celia said, sighing. "So what should I do?"

"I think recently you've just been trying to woo him," the blonde waitress explained. "I mean, yeah you told me that the two of you had some good conversation at the Beach Festival, but for people like that you really have to get them to open up."

"So…" said Celia, thinking. "I should go somewhere, sit him down, and then we just have a deep conversation?"

"Yep," Muffy replied, pointing at her, "but in a less creepy sounding way. Just make sure you tell him that you want to talk and not have a "heart to heart" or anything sappy."

"Great," the brunette replied. "You know what's funny? I think Alex seems to be having the same problem that I've been having."

"Oh, with the whole Marlin thing?" Muffy asked. This made Marlin listen to the conversation even more after he deduced that the two were talking about Wyatt.

"Yep," Celia replied. "We care about them more than they care about us. We still care."

"Mmm…" Muffy seemed to make a noise in agreement. Marlin set down his last dish and quietly left the house.

Alex was sitting in the sand by the beach. She was enjoying the view of the ocean as her feet were out into the water. She wasn't wearing a bathing suit, but she walked to the beach without any shoes.

"Hey," Marlin walked up to the redhead and greeted her.

"Oh, Marlin!" she was about to get up and fix herself up, but Marlin kneeled down next to her. This made Alex feel like she didn't really have to stand up, so she didn't. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you," he explained. Alex started turning red, but then looked away so that it didn't show. "I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the Bamboo Float Festival with me."

"So like… have a picnic?" Alex asked. Marlin nodded. "And then float bamboo floats down the river together?" Marlin nodded again.

"What do you say?"

"I'd love to!" the redhead replied, trying not to sound too enthusiastic, but she was unable to contain all of her excitement.

"Great," Marlin said. "I'll see you then." he rose to his feet and walked off. Alex waved and did a little cheer once Marlin was out of sight. She decided to keep enjoying the view of the beach and stayed there until the sun set.

The next day was Summer 8th. Wyatt was finished working on the ranch and Celia entered the area, greeting Wyatt. He greeted her back.

"Say, Wyatt," she began, "would you like to have a chat with me?" Wyatt shrugged a little.

"Sure," he nodded.

"Great!" Celia smiled. "Let's go to the Goddess Pond." Wyatt nodded and the two walked there. They sat down and looked down into the water in silence.

"So what did you want to talk about again?" Wyatt wondered.

"There was nothing specific I wanted to talk about," replied Celia. She paused before replying. "I just wanted to talk. You don't seem to really open up about things with people." Wyatt shrugged.

"I'm not really that type of person," the blonde replied.

"I sorta figured that one out on my own," Celia said with a little chuckle. "Maybe I should start and talk about myself."

"If you want to, go ahead," Wyatt told her. She nodded and thought for a minute about what would be a good starting point.

"Well, the reason I moved to the valley was because of my health," Celia began. "The air in the city just made my sickness worse and I knew that I had to move to somewhere in the countryside."

"Wait," said Wyatt when he had an opening. "I didn't know that you were from the city." Celia smiled and nodded.

"Yep," she said, before continuing. "Luckily, Auntie Vesta, who isn't really my aunt, was willing to take me in. She knew both of my parents very well from when she also lived in the city."

"Good to know that Vesta isn't really your aunt…" Wyatt mumbled. "Because if Marlin's her brother, then he…"

"What?" Celia asked. Wyatt shook his head.

"Nothing…" he said. "Keep going. I'm interested." Wyatt showed this by turning to her when she talked instead of looking out into the pond.

"I'm not really sure what to talk about…" Celia admitted, putting her hand on her chin. "Why don't you talk about something? Why did you come to Forget-Me-Not?"

"Okay," Wyatt said with a nod. "I came here because my dad, as you probably know, was the one who ran the ranch with Alex's dad. Apparently, the two got into a big fight and left the land… and I guess Takakura thought that their children would be the most appropriate to ask to take care of the ranch."

"Guess he was right," Celia replied, smiling. Wyatt paused and nodded.

"I guess so…" he said. "How was your family life when you lived in the city?" Celia was quiet for a moment before she did a gesture similar to Wyatt in shrugging her shoulders.

"It was alright," she told him. "They weren't divorced or anything. They just… fought a lot. It's sort of another reason why I was fine leaving the city like that. Their fighting really brought me down from my happy moods, so I always liked to be out of the house when I was in the city."

"That's too bad," Wyatt said, sympathetically. "I had some parent troubles, too."

"Really?" Celia asked. Wyatt nodded, turning back to the pond water.

"My dad left me and my mom when I was ten-years-old," he said. "I don't know why he did it, but I think my mom knew why. I became very independent because of it since my mom didn't work. And then very recently, probably right before Takakura asked me to come here, my mom passed away."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Celia. "My parent problems are like nothing compared to that."

"It's okay," Wyatt replied, turning to the farmer. "It makes sense why I'm like this because of that though, I guess."

"That makes sense…" Celia nodded. Wyatt looked up for a moment and then back at Celia.

"Hey," he began. "Do you wanna have a picnic before the Bamboo Float Festival tomorrow?" Celia smiled.

"I'd love to!" she told him. Wyatt nodded.

"I'm glad," he replied. "Well, I need to do some work back at the ranch. I'll walk you back."

"Okay," Celia nodded and the two left the Goddess Pond area.

The next day was Summer 9th. It was the day of the Bamboo Float Festival. There were a good amount of couples that all had their picnics set up for the day while they waited for the sun to set. Besides the married couples, Rock and Lumina, Wyatt and Celia, and Marlin and Alex all were set up.

"I'm glad that you asked me to do this, Rock!" Lumina said, getting a sandwich out of a very lavish picnic basket. The two were sitting near the tree close to the bridge on the side where Vesta's Farm was.

"Well, I knew that you would bring the best food," Rock joked.

"Rock…" Lumina sighed a little. "You're lucky that I've recently been able to get your sense of humor…" Rock started laughing a little nervously.

"Could you pass a sandwich?" he asked.

Alex and Marlin set up their picnic area at the end of the river. They were on the side of Vesta's Farm.

"Is this your blanket?" Alex asked, pointing to the blanket covered in carrots and with a girly, yellow pattern all on it.

"No…" Marlin replied with a small sigh. "It's Vesta's. Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do like it!" said Alex, smiling. "Of course I'm gonna like it, though. I'm a girl and I'm a farmer. It's cute and it has things that a farmer would love on it."

"That's true…" noted Marlin with a small nod. "Then I guess I know what to get you for your birthday."

"I guess you do!" Alex replied, trying to hold back her excited laugh, but let a few chortles pass her lips, casually. Marlin handed her an orange and she thanked him, peeling it before eating it.

Celia and Wyatt were set up on the side opposite of Vesta's Farm in the sandy area before the forest path goes to the Goddess Pond.

"You know, I really like this spot," Celia explained to Wyatt. "If I fished it would be the perfect place to fish. Do you fish at all?" Wyatt nodded as he finished his sip of water.

"Not a lot," he told the farmer, "but I do it sometimes. This is actually the spot where I fish when I do it. Or the bridge." Wyatt explained.

"Oh, that's pretty ironic, then!" Celia said, laughing a little as she took a bite of a salad.

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly until the sun was about to set. The people who hadn't been picnicking joined the others by standing by the river. They were all holding a bamboo float.

"You don't know how this works, do you?" Celia turned to Wyatt and asked. He shook his head.

"Nope,"

"Okay, well, basically you just make a wish in your head and then you set it carefully into the water," explained the farmer. "If your bamboo floats stays afloat then your wish will come true!"

"That seems simple enough," Wyatt said. He and Celia noticed that other people were starting to put their bamboo floats into the river.

"Okay, let's make wishes!" Celia decided. Wyatt nodded. The two closed their eyes as they made their wishes and put the floats into the water at the same time. The bamboo floats stayed afloat for as long as they were able to watch it.

Celia turned and smiled to Wyatt about the event and he smiled back at her. She wanted to look back and act shocked about the ordeal because no one in the valley had seen him smile, but she decided to leave the moment to be a good one by not saying anything. Once it got dark, everyone went home.


	11. Overpowered

Overpowered

The next day was Summer 10th. It was a quiet day as farmers were harvesting their crops that would die soon and preparing to plant crops for the next season.

The next day was Autumn 1st. The day before, Lumina got upset with Rock because of his personality in the same way that she would usually be upset with him. She was standing out on the hill on the opposite side of the road as Vesta's Farm. Lumina was looking up to the sky. Rock was also lying down near her and he got up when he noticed her and walked over.

"Hey!" he called out as he started walking over. "Hey, hey, hey! Lumina! What are you doing here?" once Lumina noticed Rock, she looked mad and turned away from him.

"This has nothing to do with you, Rock!" Lumina told him.

"Don't talk like that," Rock said, his face becoming a little calmer. "You're worried about something, right? I bet it's… love problems. Right?" Lumina got even more upset with Rock, clenching her fists.

"It's all right!" Rock told her. "Lumina! I won't change my mind about you. Go ahead and say it!" she finally turned over, still not directly looking at Rock.

"No!" Lumina exclaimed back at him. "I was thinking about my parents." she told him as she seemed to calm down. Lumina put her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky again in silence for a moment.

"I don't remember my parents at all," she explained. "I wonder what kind of people they were."

"That's simple!" Rock replied. "Why don't you just ask somebody?"

"But even if I ask Auntie Romana, she never gives me a straight answer," Lumina told Rock. "Maybe Auntie Romana's told Sebastian not to say anything?" then, tears started to form in her eyes.

"He won't tell me anything…" said Lumina, referring to Sebastian.

"Well…" the blonde started contemplating something. "Why don't you just forget about it?" Lumina finally turned to directly face Rock.

"If I could do that, there'd be no problem!" she told him.

"But, maybe it's better for you not to know," Rock said. "In any case, they don't seem to tell you. There's no point getting upset about it. Besides, you've got Romana and Sebastian with you! If I were you, I'd stop trying to find out about the past and start thinking about the future!" Rock smiled at Lumina.

"Rock…" Lumina said, the tears gone from her eyes. She then smiled a little. Rock turned around to congratulate himself on cheering Lumina up.

"Hmm," he said. "Yep! That's good advice! How very like me. Whew. I'm quite a catch, if I do say so myself." when Rock wasn't paying attention, Lumina started walking away.

"Hey!" Rock exclaimed when he finally turned around to see Lumina walking away. "Lumina!" he started running after her.

The next day was Autumn 2nd. The events from the day before got Rock curious about Lumina's parents, so he decided that he would snoop and ask Romana about it.

"Lumina's parents?" Romana asked Rock when he asked his question. Rock nodded.

"Yes, I want to know what happened to them," he explained. "I promise not to tell her because you don't seem to want to tell her, but I want to know." Romana looked at Rock curiously for a moment, making him feel nervous. She then nodded.

"Okay," said Romana. "I'll tell you." she requested that Rock close the door and he did so. Romana said that he could sit on her bed.

"Thank you." Rock sat down at the end of the bed. Romana took a deep breath and then explained.

"Lumina's parents died in a train wreck," she told him. Rock's eyes widened and Romana nodded. "There's not really much more to it with how they died. However…"

"Hmm?" Rock looked at Romana with a curious look. Romana let out a sigh.

"Now this is more me explaining something about myself than Lumina's parents," she said.

"Go ahead, Romana," replied Rock. "I'm listening." Romana nodded and rocked back and forth a little in her chair before continuing.

"Well, before the two got on the train I got into a little argument with them," she explained. "Actually… a huge argument. Looking back, it was a very stupid argument, but that was the last thing that we all said to each other. I've felt horrible ever since."

"Wow," Rock said. "That's truly something…"

"That's why I push Lumina so hard and why I care for her so much," Romana said. "It's to make up for leaving my mark on her parts that way.

"It makes sense why you don't want to tell her now…" said Rock as he got up from Romana's bed. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Romana smiled. "Just make sure that you won't tell this to Lumina. I'll tell her when she's ready to know." Rock nodded and said good-bye.

The next day was Autumn 3rd. It was a quick day and not much happened outside of everyone doing their daily routines.

The next day was Autumn 4th. It was a nice day and Lumina was making her way down the slope in the front of the mansion. At the bottom of the slope, she ran into Rock and said hello.

"Lumina!" Rock called out her name. "Just who I was looking for. Come with me!" she giggled at his enthusiasm.

"Now?" wondered Lumina. "I was just about to go to the forest. Would you like to come with me, Rock?"

"The forest?" Rock restated where Lumina was planning to go. "No! I'll take you someplace a lot better than the forest!" Rock started turning around and walking.

"But I wanted to go to the forest today…" Lumina mumbled.

"Come on!" Rock replied, not really listening. "Let's go!" he kept walking and Lumina groaned, but followed him anyway. The two went to the beach, with Lumina not looking very happy and her hands behind her back.

"Rock, you're not listening to me at all!" Lumina said.

"That's just your imagination!" he blissfully replied. Lumina groaned again and decided to ignore the comment.

"So why did we come to the sea today?" she wondered.

"The reason is…" Rock started to build up anticipation for the reason. "The sea was calling me!" Lumina was silent and put her arms back to her sides.

"I don't hear anything," she said. Rock made a face and Lumina turned away and started giggling. "Hmph! Rock, you're just like a little kid." the two walked further down the beach and then stopped again.

"But…" Lumina started again. "You and I are both kind of selfish." she then kept walking by herself and Rock started talking.

"You're taking me a little too literally," he told her, making her stop. "But being honest about your feelings is one of your best features!" Lumina smiled and turned around.

"No one's ever said that to me before," she said. "Thank you, Rock." he walked forward more to meet Lumina and the two kept walking down the shore, holding hands.

The next day was Autumn 5th. It was the day of the Harvest Festival, so Alex and everyone at Vesta's Farm were very excited. The Harvest Festival wasn't a big festival.

"So it doesn't really matter when I go to the Blue Bar?" Wyatt asked Alex as she was walking towards the bar with a big basket of her harvest. Alex nodded.

"Yep," she said, bluntly. "I'm just glad that you're going at all! Anyway, it's an all-day event. We'll just be displaying the fruits of our harvest and having a good time. I'll be there all day, so it'll be nice to have company."

"Won't Marlin be there all day, too?" wondered Wyatt. Alex blushed a little.

"Yeah, he will," Alex told him. "I'm freaking out a little less when I'm around him! And, you know, Celia will be there too."

"Oh really?" Wyatt asked. Alex nodded and kept going.

"I'd better hurry so that I'm not too late!" she said. "See you when you go! Bye!" Wyatt waved and went back to his house.

As the day went on, Alex started to think that Wyatt wouldn't show up at the Blue Bar. Once the sun set, Wyatt appeared and greeted everyone.

"Hey!" Celia greeted Wyatt with a hug, which made Alex giggle a little. "You made it!"

"I did," he replied with a nod.

"Good to see you," Alex said with a smile.

"Likewise," Wyatt replied to the redhead.

"Let's enjoy the last of the harvest, then!" Vesta said, loudly. Griffin nodded and started playing softly on the guitar. "Most people ate what we had, but we've still got some stuff!"

"Maybe you could compare and see if our vegetables are better than Alex's…" Marlin replied in a snarky tone.

"Hey!" Alex yelled and pointed at him, seemingly making him flinch.

"I think he'd be biased, anyway," Celia said, putting a finger on her lips casually. Wyatt agreed with Celia.

"Yeah, but biased which way?" wondered Vesta. Alex and Celia raised their eyebrows, looked at each other, and then back at Wyatt.

"Uh," he started mumbling a little. "Let me just enjoy both, regardless of any bias…" with that settled, the others kept eating the harvest, too, until it was finished. The group stayed together at the bar for a while before it got too late and everyone went home.


	12. Crazy for You

Crazy for You

The next day was Autumn 6th. Alex finished her work quickly that day, so she decided to go seek out Nami and have a chat with her. She made her way to the inn and went inside.

"Do you know if Nami's in or not?" Alex asked Tim at the front desk.

"I think she went out, but you should check her room just in case," Tim replied. Alex nodded and thanked him. She went upstairs and knocked on the door. After waiting for a minute, she deduced that Nami was out.

"Oh, Nami left," Rock said after climbing the staircase to his room. Alex let out a little groan.

"Thanks for that," she replied, somewhat sarcastically. "I didn't get that from standing here and knocking for about a minute."

"Well, you know," the blonde replied, "I'm just helping out, especially when people don't notice things like that." Alex blatantly stared at Rock for a while before leaving him without saying anything.

"So is she up there?" Tim asked once he saw her walk down the stairs.

"Nope," Alex said, saying goodbye to Tim as she left. Upon leaving, she heard Gustafa playing the guitar, so she decided to walk over. Gustafa was by the tree close to the river, facing the river. Nami was on the other side of the tree, secretly listening with a small smile. Nami noticed Alex and stood up and walked over so that Gustafa wouldn't notice them being there.

"Gustafa's music makes me feel so good," Nami explained to Alex.

"Yeah, he plays very well," Alex agreed, smiling at the other redhead.

"Maybe it's because he's the one playing it," Nami admitted. Alex raised her eyebrow while Nami turned to look back at Gustafa. She then turned back to Alex. "Yeah, I think that's it."

"Hmm…" murmured Alex. Nami slowly turned to the opposite direction as Gustafa and walked away. "Um. I guess I'll find someone else to bother…" Alex let out a small sigh and walked off.

The next day was Autumn 7th. It was a boring rainy day.

The next day was Autumn 8th. It was the day of the Food Festival.

"Everyone put your names on a list!" Alex said. There were two lists. One list was to sign up for the cooking part of the Food Festival and the other was for the eating part. "Are you signing up for the eating?" Alex joked to Wyatt.

"Are you crazy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you really expect someone like me to do the eating part?" Alex giggled.

"I was just teasing!" she told him. "Look! I already wrote your name on the list for cooking."

"Thanks," Wyatt let out a small sigh and then smiled. Alex nodded and went back to the lists.

"Alright, to whoever's on the cooking list let me tell you the category for the year!" she announced.

"Why aren't you entering?" Lumina wondered.

"Yeah, don't you love to cook?" Marlin asked. Alex chuckled.

"Well, thanks for remembering that about me," she said, bashfully. "Next year I'll attend. But this year I feel like I have an obligation to be the judge. We can get the festivals more sorted and organized in the future years."

"So what's the category?" Ruby asked, obviously anxious to start cooking.

"The category is… salad," Alex nodded. "Should be simple. We'll set up the eating part while you're all cooking and start the eating contest once you're all ready."

Wyatt, Celia, Ruby, Patrick, and Flora all left to start their cooking. Alex consulted the list of people who were going to be part of the eating contest.

"Okay, so, Rock," Alex said his name. "That's not a surprise." Rock grinned.

"I drink a lot of milk!" he explained. "So that must mean that I can eat a bunch! Is that right?" Alex just ignored Rock and made him move over to the side.

"Okay, and Kassey… and Gustafa?" the two walked forward when Alex called them.

"Patrick and I decided to enter two different contests, so we'll see how we do," Kassey explained.

"I'm just not the best chef and I like to eat," Gustafa said. "I just wanted to compete in something today."

"And the last two are Vesta and… Nami!" Alex exclaimed. The two walked up and Alex questioned Nami why she was entering the contest. She turned to Gustafa and then shrugged.

"Well, get prepared because the cooking contestants should probably be back soon," Alex told the eating contest contestants as they waited.

About ten minutes later, the cooking contestants started pouring back onto the beach and set their salad dishes up in their respective locations.

"Okay, we can start the eating contest now!" Alex said, clasping her hands together. "To keep the contest fitting with the theme of the Food Festival, you will be eating salad! Whoever eats the most wins! Oh, and don't worry about giving up because any leftovers will be given to the village hobo!"

"Moi," Murrey piped up after his cue. The five contestants got ready with their bowls of salad and got their forks ready.

"3… 2… 1…" Alex counted down. "GO!" Nami started off very slow and actually gave up after one bowl.

"I just wanted free food, to be honest…" the redhead admitted, setting her fork down and turning to watch the other contestants. The others kept eating quickly until Gustafa finished.

"I forgot that I had a big breakfast…" sighed Gustafa, setting his fork down. "I probably should have planned ahead a little more for that." he lowered his head to sulk for a moment before turning to the others.

"Keep going!" Alex cheered them on, getting the bystanders to cheer as well. "You're all on your third bowls!" eventually, Kassey had to give in.

"I don't know if it's because it's too good for me, but I can't eat anymore…" he said.

"Vesta and Rock!" Alex announced. "These are the two remaining contestants! They are on their fourth bowls each! Good luck to the both of them!"

"Good commentary…" Wyatt mumbled, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Go Rock!" Lumina cheered, jumping up and down like a cheerleader at a football game. The match continued until it got to the sixth bowl and Vesta had to give up.

"I don't know how he can do it!" she exclaimed. "He's such a little boy! And I live for vegetables!" Lumina cheered even more and ran up to give Rock a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Rock is the winner!" announced Alex. Cheered and applause flew in from the crowd and Rock flashed an impish grin.

"What's my prize?" the blonde wondered. Alex pulled out a golden plate from her belongings.

"I figure that this would be something fun for you to eat food with," the redhead explained. "Eat food with pride!"

"Great!" Rock took the plate and held it high with pride. More applause flew in from this response.

"Alright, I'm going to judge the cooking now!" Alex clasped her hands together and made her way to the five tables set up with food. Murrey already made his way to the eating contest table and started eating the leftovers.

"I'll start with you, Patrick," she said, facing him and taking a bite of his salad. "What did you make?"

"Just a simple red salad," the twin explained with a confident nod. Alex tasted the food and smiled softly.

"Simple, indeed," Alex began, "but it's very good. You used very good tomatoes to make this. Well done." Patrick nodded and Alex moved on to the next contestant.

"I made egg salad!" Ruby explained, pushing the bowl of her cooking product towards the judge. Alex took a spoonful and a large smile passed upon her lips.

"Very good!" she said. "A complex dish with a lot of flavor! I like it!" Ruby smiled and Alex moved on to the next contestant.

"It's light pickles," Wyatt presented the simplest salad dish to Alex. She smiled while eating it.

"Well, this is very simple," Alex explained. "Like Patrick's dish, though, it's very good. Fresh products. A+ to the person who supplied you with these crops." she winked at Wyatt and moved on.

"This is… um…" Flora trailed off as she was explaining what her black puddle of a dish was. Alex wanted to ask how she even made this while making salad, but took the smallest bite.

"Oh, wow," said Alex, gagging. "That wasn't very good… Keep trying at it though! You'll get it!" she cringed and moved on to the final person.

"I made a fruit salad!" Celia smiled and presented Alex with her dish. Alex flashed a big smile as she ate Celia's food.

"Oh, very sweet," she explained. "You used a varied supply of fruit, making the flavor very good and diverse. Nice job!" Celia smiled as Alex walked into the middle of the beach area.

"Okay, I think I've got my winner!" Alex said, smiling and clasping her hands together. "Celia! You're the winner with your fruit salad! You also get a golden plate to put your best cooked dishes on."

"Thank you!" Celia smiled and held her prize with both hands. The crowd cheered for her victory.

"That's it for this year!" Alex announced. "All participants will get consultation prizes. See you at the next Food Festival!"

The next day was Autumn 9th. It was a cloudy day and there was expected rain.

"I actually like weather like this," explained Nami as she and Gustafa were walking around. They passed the Blue Bar.

"That makes sense," replied Gustafa, "especially since this is your favorite season." suddenly, it started raining. Nami and Gustafa started walking quickly until they made it under the shelter of the inn.

"I'm soaked," Nami stated, watching the rain fall down. "Well… the rainy weather makes me depressed so I hate it."

"Rain is nature's blessing," Gustafa explained. Nami turned to the vagabond.

"Blessing?" she wondered, raising an eyebrow. Gustafa nodded.

"That's right," he said. Gustafa then took a few steps out from under the inn to get out into the rain. "Water is very important to human beings. If it weren't for the blessing of the rain, you and I… well, everyone wouldn't be able to live." he lifted his hands up to feel the raindrops.

"If you think of it that way rain isn't so bad, is it?" wondered Gustafa. He lowered his arms.

"Hmm…" Nami sighed and scratched the back of her head before walking out into the rain to join Gustafa. She looked up at the sky and then back down at Gustafa.

"Maybe you're right," Nami said, smiling. Gustafa smiled back and the two walked on.

The next day was Autumn 10th. Surprisingly for the valley, it was the first day of snow. It was light snow so it wasn't planned to stick on the ground until at least the next few days.

"Do you like the snow?" Celia wondered as she and Wyatt wandered around the valley.

"Yeah," he said, looking around. "I do in the city at least. Not sure how it compares here in the valley yet…"

"I remember the snow was nice in the city," Celia nodded. "I prefer it here, though. It's always quiet here and I can't really enjoy the snowfall unless it's quiet."

"That makes sense…" Wyatt replied. "That's probably how I'll feel about it, too. But there's something about those few quiet times in the snow in the city that makes it even more special."

"That makes sense, too…" said Celia, smiling.

"We can compromise and say that the snow is great anywhere," decided Wyatt with a small smile.

"Agreed!" Celia laughed. The two decided to sit down on the bench by the river. "Hmm. The only sad part of Winter is that there isn't much to grow. And most, if not all, of the trees die."

"Every season has its drawbacks," Wyatt said with a small nod.

"That's true…" the brunette nodded. "At least w can still grow strawberries and other things. Do you like strawberries?" Wyatt nodded.

"I don't know anyone who doesn't, to be honest," he replied, scratching the back of his light hair.

"Here, have one then!" Celia smiled and handed Wyatt a strawberry and got one for herself. "I grew two strawberry plants this season just because I have a small plot to grow crops. We all have small plots and then most of the field is the whole farm in general, mostly for profit."

"Thank you," Wyatt thanked Celia for the strawberry and explained that the concept that they do for the farm is interesting. "Do you ever grow trees?"

"Not really," Celia said, thinking about it. "I sorta want to actually, but I guess with my little space to grow crops I would only really be able to have one tree grown."

"Maybe in a few years time…" suggested Wyatt.

"Maybe," Celia scratched her chin pensively. After some time, Celia said that she should be heading back to her farm to finish up the last harvest for the season and said that she would see Wyatt tomorrow. The two left the bench area.


	13. Through Time

Through Time

The next day was Winter 1st. Wyatt had changed into a new outfit for the season. He had on black jeans, a black T-shirt, and a varsity jacket.

"Did you play a sport while you lived in the city?" Celia asked Wyatt. It was another snowy day, but it was snowing harder than yesterday. The two were sitting at the Goddess Pond.

"No," Wyatt replied, fixing his jacket. "My mom gave it to me when I was young because when I saw one I said that I liked them. So she just bought it for me."

"Your mother sounds like she was very nice," Celia smiled and put her hands together in her lap.

"She was," said Wyatt before getting quiet.

"What about your dad?" asked Celia. "Was he a good guy for the time that you knew him." Wyatt nodded.

"Yeah he was, which was why I could never figure out why he left," he explained, scratching his head. "It definitely came a shock and he never explained why."

"You still don't know why do this day?" Celia wondered. Wyatt shook his head. "Was there not even anything left in your house from him?" again, Wyatt shook his head.

"Did you ever talk to him or Alex's dad?" he asked. The brunette shook her head.

"The two of them never really left the ranch," Celia explained. "Not even to leave the valley like Takakura did… well he still does that. I did see him before, though. He had jet black hair. So you must get your hair from your mother."

"Sorta…" Wyatt mumbled, pushing his hair back. It was slightly more silver today than it was blonde. Celia hugged her knees as she looked into the pond water.

"I get my hair from my mother, too," she told Wyatt.

"What color hair does your dad have?" asked Wyatt.

"It's also brown," Celia said, "but it's a lighter shade. Even lighter than mine! I guess it's more of a dirty blonde than anything."

"Cool…" the rancher replied. Wyatt decided to keep the subject on hair. "Oh, have you ever dyed your hair before?" Celia laughed sheepishly and nodded.

"Yep, I dyed it a golden blonde color," she explained. "Everyone would say "oh my God you look just like Shakira!" I didn't mind it, but I liked how I looked like this more. How about you?"

"Yeah, I've dyed my hair before," Wyatt replied, scratching his arm slowly. "It was a while ago."

"I see," Celia replied, giving Wyatt a devious smile and nodding slowly.

"… What?" Wyatt wondered. Celia shrugged slowly, still smiling.

"Nothing…" she replied, playfully. Wyatt's eyebrow raised, but then he lowered it and shook his head.

"Hey, why don't we go fish?" suggested Wyatt, taking out his fishing rod. Celia thought that it would be a good idea and did the same.

"Wait, right here?" she wondered, looking into the pond waters. "I don't think that would be a good idea. There probably aren't that many fish in there." Wyatt smiled.

"No, I meant by the river," he said. Celia noted this and said that it was a good idea. "We can sit on the bridge and enjoy the snowfall." the two did what Wyatt suggested and they sat for a while without having caught anything.

"We're not doing very well, are we?" Celia asked, laughing softly.

"It doesn't matter," Wyatt told her. "I'm probably scaring off the fish with my coldness. Or something." he joked. Celia giggled and gave him a little hug.

"I'm sure that's not it," she replied, still holding him and rubbing his shoulder. "I mean, I'm still here!"

"I guess that's true," Wyatt nodded and chuckled a little. Celia kept holding Wyatt for about another minute and eventually closed her eyes until her line started bobbing and she lurched back to grab her fishing rod.

"I've got something!" Celia called out, trying to pull the fish out of the water. "This is a big fish! Help me out, Wyatt!" he listened to her cry for help and the two eventually pulled the fish out of the water.

"Phew…" Wyatt let out a sigh of relief. "Wow. That really was a big fish that you've got there." Celia put the fish away in her belongings and nodded.

"I'll cook it tomorrow and we can eat it then!" she replied, smiling and happy. "If it's alright with you that we see each other tomorrow…" Celia turned what she was saying into a hope, pushing her index fingers together in hope.

"Yeah," Wyatt nodded, "I'd love to see you tomorrow."

"Okay!" Celia replied, smiling and blushing slightly. Wyatt smiled.

"You can come over and cook it at my kitchen if you want," he suggested. "That way I can watch you and become a better chef. And maybe beat you at the next Food Festival." Celia scoffed.

"Well, I'd like to see you try!" she jeered a little, poking him in the side. Wyatt smiled again. "Oh, we've spent all day together!" Celia noted the time and said that she should be heading home.

"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow then," Wyatt said to Celia, getting up and then helping Celia get up to her feet.

"Thanks," she thanked Wyatt for helping her get up. "I'll make sure that I don't forget the fish for tomorrow." Celia smiled and gave Wyatt a big hug before walking back towards Vesta's Farm.

"See you then,"

* * *

><p>The next day was Winter 2nd. It was snowing once again and the snow was finally setting all around the valley. It was actually looking like Winter.<p>

"Hey!" Celia knocked on Wyatt's door. He had asked her to come at sometime in the afternoon so that they could have the fish for dinner.

"Hey, come on in," Wyatt greeted her and let her come inside. Celia thanked him and looked around the small house.

"Ooh, I like your house," she said, setting down the fish that she caught on a counter in the kitchen area. "It's pretty small, but it's cute!"

"Thanks," Wyatt said, walking over to the kitchen area where she was. "I'm probably gonna expand it early next year or something… we'll see though."

"You could get an upstairs!" Celia suggested. "Those are fun! Although, I suppose I say that just because I live in the loft of the farm… and even when I lived in the city my room was upstairs."

"Maybe…" replied Wyatt. "We'll see. I never lived in an upstairs. But anyway, why don't we get started on some cooking?"

"That's a good idea," agreed Celia. "Any recommendations on what to make?" Wyatt shook his head.

"I thought that's what the point of you making it was…" he replied, smiling a little. Celia scoffed and pushed him lightly.

"Okay, we can just make sashimi," she decided. "It's the only thing that we can make with just fish anyway. You should be able to make this on your own! You don't need my help!"

"Well you'd probably do it better than I would anyway," Wyatt told Celia, scratching the back of his head slowly. She laughed softly and let out a small sigh.

"That's true…" Celia replied, casually. Wyatt frowned and Celia ran her hand through his hair to mess it up a little. "Okay, just watch my technique and you'll perfect the art of sashimi-making as soon as possible!" Wyatt watched as Celia made their meal, which didn't take too much time.

"Here, I'll set it up on the table," suggested Wyatt, leading Celia over to her seat and pulling out her chair. "It's the least I can do since you cooked it."

"Thank you," she thanked Wyatt and sat down. "You also get to wash the dishes!" Wyatt nodded and took their two plates along with other silverware to the table and also took his seat.

"Oh, drinks…" Wyatt realized that he was forgetting something. "Do you want anything special?"

"Water is great, but thanks for asking," Celia replied. "Anything special… do you mix drinks or something?" she chuckled a little.

"I do, actually," Wyatt laughed back. "I'm not a hard drinker, but I do drink occasionally."

"Probably same as me…" Celia mumbled, thanking Wyatt for her water. "Although, you probably drink more than I do if you can mix drinks fairly well."

"That's probably true," Wyatt nodded and lifted his glass that was also filled with water. "Cheers. To a well-cooked meal." Celia lifted her glass as well.

"Cheers!" she said, more enthusiastically than Wyatt had. The two were talking throughout the meal and enjoying the sashimi. Wyatt got curious when Celia started talking about her family, specifically Marlin and Vesta.

"I have to ask, not to be too nosy…" he began. "But do you know how Marlin feels about Alex? I'm not trying to get an in for her… I'm just genuinely curious." Celia finished her sip of water and thought for a moment.

"Um…" she pondered the question even more.

"You don't have to answer," Wyatt replied with a sincere look at Celia.

"No, no, it's okay," she replied, quickly. "I'm just not really sure myself. I… want him to like her because she seems like a good girl, especially for him. Plus, I know that he really liked me for a while. He still might, actually. He's very protective."

"I've noticed that," Wyatt said with a little smile.

"I think everyone's noticed it," Celia giggled a little. "So I'm thinking that being around you so much will make him less protective of me and start paying attention to other things."

"Yeah…" Wyatt said before thinking a little more about what Celia said and raising an eyebrow a little.

"What about Alex?" Celia wondered.

"Hmm?"

"I mean, obviously she really likes Marlin…" Celia replied with a nod. "But is she really willing to keep chasing after this even with all the… rejection she seems to get?"

"I think because it's not flat-out rejection is why she thinks that she can win him over," Wyatt explained with a small smile. "I think people of her caliber, make-up and used to be a model, think that way in terms of getting boys."

"That's probably very true," Celia replied and giggled. "It's funny how girls are, isn't it?"

"Oh, it is indeed," Wyatt replied with a small sigh and scratching the back of his head. Celia laughed again and finished her sashimi.

"Well, not to boast about my own cooking, but that was a good meal!" she replied. Celia then looked around a little and immediately honed in on something that she hadn't seen before.

"Oh no," Wyatt sighed when he knew what Celia was referring to. Celia jumped out of her seat to pick up a pair of slippers and swooned over them.

"Scottish terrier dog slippers!?" Celia gasped at them. "They're so cute! Do you wear them a lot?"

"Sometimes…" Wyatt replied.

"They look like they fit your feet perfectly!" said Celia, finally setting the slippers down. Wyatt nodded slowly.

"Yeah…" he said. "They used to be too big for me, but now they fit pretty perfectly."

"Aw, you've had them for a long time?" Celia asked, still swooning. Wyatt nodded again.

"My dad actually gave them to me before he left," he explained, looking at the slippers. "I think they used to be his, but he kept them in good condition. So I've done the same."

"That's nice that you've kept them so nice," Celia said. "I like the back story behind them, too. But you probably just think that they're cute, too." she nudged Wyatt a little, who laughed a little in response.

"No comment," he replied. Celia chuckled again.

"Okay, well, I hate to have to go but it's getting late," she told him.

"Okay, let me walk you home," Wyatt said, turning to the dinner table. "Do you want the leftovers? Because there's plenty… and I'm sure that I won't be able to eat it all."

"Yeah, alright!" Celia said. "I'll take half. That way we'll be able to eat a fair amount each."

"That sounds good to me," Wyatt helped Celia wrap up half of the sashimi and walked her back to Vesta's Farm. The two said goodbye and Wyatt made his way back to his ranch.


	14. Winter Winds

Winter Winds

The next day was Winter 3rd. Wyatt seemed to be going through his chores in a way that was more sluggish than usual. Alex seemed to take notice of this when she was taking care of the few crops that she had.

"How am I done before he is…?" she wondered under her breath. "Granted, I have fewer crops than usual, but he always is done with his chores before I am. I'd better talk to him."

When Alex hadn't noticed, Wyatt vanished somewhere after finishing his chores. Alex scoffed and went to find Takakura, who hadn't left to go into town yet.

"Hey, do you know where Wyatt went off to?" Alex asked him.

"I didn't ask, but I saw him head to the little forest area by the beach," Takakura told her. "He looked a little upset. You going to cheer him up?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded. Takakura nodded in return.

"Well, good luck," he said. "It's good to see you two getting as close as your parents were with each other." Alex smiled and nodded. Takakura smiled and made his way to the hill to leave the valley.

"Wyatt!" Alex yelled once she saw Wyatt sitting under a tree. He was facing out into the ocean. "Why are you so mopey?"

"I don't really want to talk about it…" Wyatt told Alex.

"I know it's about Celia!" Alex barked before realizing that she probably shouldn't be yelling to help Wyatt feel better. "Look, we should be really close friends like our parents were with each other. I mean, you know about me and Marlin!"

"I guess…" Wyatt replied. "But everyone knows about you and Marlin…"

"Could you please just talk to me about it?" Alex asked, smiling and kneeling down to be at the same level as Wyatt. He let out a small sigh and crossed his arms.

"Well… yes, it is about Celia," explained Wyatt. "It's just… because of past relationships my head is conflicted with my heart."

"Why's that?" Alex asked. "You don't need to tell me about your past relationships."

"It's basically just that my head wants love to grow, but because of past failures and rejections, my heart isn't allowing it to be so," Wyatt told Alex. "I'm just conflicted with my feelings, but I feel like I really like her."

"I think she really likes you, too, if that helps any," the redhead said, patting Wyatt on the shoulder. "Especially if the two of you were with each other for the past three days and it was great."

"Well, what if it's just friendship greatness?" Wyatt wondered. "Or at least that's what she could be thinking and I would be put in the friend zone."

"You'd never know if you don't ask…" Alex replied, coyly. "Plus, I have a woman's intuition that she likes you back in the same way that you seem to like her. I know how women work. Most women. For the most part."

"Thanks," Wyatt said with a smile. "You know… you should keep at Marlin, especially if Celia and I progress further. He might be like me and crack at a nice woman." Alex smiled back at this.

"And we can sort my problem out with him when the time comes!" she joked and stood up. "I'll make dinner tonight. You come over and enjoy a meal with me, okay?"

"Sure," Wyatt said with a nod. Alex smiled again and left to go back to the ranch. After a while, Wyatt finally stood up and started walking towards the ranch only to find that the forest was calling him. It wasn't literally calling him, but he was very compelled to go over. Wyatt walked through the area with the trees and turned into the area with the Goddess Pond.

"Mofa-fa…" a low groan said behind Wyatt. He turned around and was very startled to find a large, white being behind him. The creature looked at Wyatt curiously, but it didn't look very harmful, so Wyatt kept calm.

"Hey there…" he greeted the creature, who responded with a noise. "Uh. Do you want a fish?" Wyatt took a fish out and the creature clearly got happy at this offering. It took the fish.

"Mofa mofa!" it cheered and walked off into a deeper part of the forest.

"That was… pretty strange…" Wyatt said.

"That was Mukumuku," a small voice said. Wyatt turned around to see the Harvest Sprites hanging out behind him. Nak was the one explaining. "He comes here every Winter. He's a friendly creature."

"Hey… you guys…" Wyatt said, leaning forward to be on a similar height to the Harvest Sprites. "I haven't seen you guys since I first moved here."

"That's because you scared us and you're kinda scary…" Nic explained.

"Yeah…" Flak replied, slowly. "We always visit Alex and go to her place a lot. She's nice. There's something spiritual about her." Wyatt frowned a little.

"I seem scary…?" he said, scratching his head slowly. "Sorry about that. I don't mean to be scary, but I can see why people would think that I am."

"It's okay," Nak said with a nod. "We'll come visit you more. You and Alex being the only ones who can see us means that we should also hang out with you more."

"You know, we have been following the saga with you and Celia," Nic said with a smile and a jump.

"Have you now?" Wyatt asked with a sly smile. The three nodded.

"We asked Mukumuku for your help," Flak told Wyatt. "That's why he went up to you to see if you were nice."

"We think you're nice, too!" Nic said, cheering. "Celia's nice, too!"

"Okay…" Wyatt replied, still confused on what the group were getting at. Mukumuku suddenly appeared again and seemed to be holding something.

"This is from all of us to you!" Nak said. "Think of it as a late housewarming present. It's also from Mukumuku!"

"A gift of friendship?" wondered Wyatt. "I feel bad for taking it. I feel like I should give something in return."

"Mofa!" Mukumuku howled, making Wyatt flinch.

"What he means is that that's not necessary," Flak told Wyatt. "Friends just give friends gifts like this anyway! Besides, we feel like this is important for you right now."

"Alright," Wyatt nodded and walked up to Mukumuku, ready to accept his gift. Mukumuku gave Wyatt something that made him audibly gasp and then smile. "Thank you!"

It was a blue feather.


	15. Dear Diary

Dear Diary

The next day was Winter 4th. Celia had asked Flora, Muffy, Nami, Alex, and Lumina to all come over to her house. It was a little awkward having Alex and Muffy in the same room, but Alex was able to keep her cool around the blonde.

"So…" Alex started. "Why have you gathered us here on this cold Winter day?" Celia took a moment to reply. She opened her mouth, hesitated, and then closed it. After doing this at least three times, she finally said what she wanted to say.

"I've been thinking about telling Wyatt my true feelings for him," everyone in the room lurched back slightly in shock of her being so honest with her answer, even Nami. Celia chuckled, sheepishly at the response. "I figured that you would all do something like that."

"Why do you wanna tell him?" Flora wondered in a tone that didn't discredit Celia's idea of revealing her feelings to Wyatt. She shrugged a little in response.

"I really feel like this is the time to tell him," Celia explained. "I feel like if I tell him then maybe he'll be at least a bit more open and caring. I'm sure that I would have to explain my feelings first even if he did feel the same way."

"Well, that's true…" replied Nami. She, of all people, would know whether or not this would be true due to her and Wyatt being similar in personalities. There was some silence in the room and Celia twiddled her thumbs together slowly.

"So… what do you all think?" Celia finally asked. The other five looked at each other slowly and then smiled at her. They all agreed that it would be a good idea.

"You don't want him to escape you, do you?" Muffy asked with a cute giggle. "I know how bad that ends up feeling."

"I agree with that," Lumina nodded. "With me and Rock, it was pretty mutual that we liked each other. But if he hadn't been a bit more persistent than expected then I definitely would have said something first." the others gave their specific reasoning why Celia should go along with the idea as well.

"We've never directly talked about you in this way," Alex told Celia, regarding Wyatt's feelings for Celia, "but I'm pretty sure that he does feel the same way about you." Celia smiled at the redhead after she said that.

"That's pretty comforting hearing you say that," she said. "Thank you, Alex. I guess I don't really have a choice then, if I've brought this up to all of you. I'd look foolish to back down."

"Well, that's true," Nami said, making a few others laugh at Nami's blunt response.

"How cute!" Muffy clasped her hands together, much to Alex's chagrin. "I always love people pairing up. It always brightens my day."

"Hold on, now," Celia said, cautiously. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here; I haven't even talked to him today yet!"

"That's true," Flora nodded. "We'll just have to wish you luck and let you get going! So good luck!" everyone gave her a good luck and a goodbye before leaving the loft of the building. Celia waved as they all left until she was by herself.

"I guess I'd better go find Wyatt, then," she finally told herself after a couple of minutes of staring off into nothing. Celia finally stood up and already felt a little wobbly in the legs, but told herself that she could do it.

"Where are you off to?" Vesta wondered when Celia made her way outside. Marlin was nearby tending to the crops.

"Oh, I'm just going to go find Wyatt," she said with a soft smile. Vesta nodded and crossed her arms.

"You've been seeing this boy a lot recently," the farmer noted, raising an eyebrow. "Is there anything that you'd… like to tell me?"

"No, Auntie Vesta," Celia laughed in response. "If there is anything to tell you, I'll tell you when I get back, okay?" she nodded.

"Sounds good to me," Vesta uncrossed her arms and gave Celia a thumbs up before joining Marlin in returning to the crops. Marlin seemed to have stopped when Celia and Vesta were talking, but swiftly got back to watering and harvesting.

"Bye!" Celia waved to the two of them and walked off. She walked across the bridge and looked around a little to see if Wyatt was in sight. His silver blonde hair usually gave away his location, but she was unable to find him. Celia then turned towards the forest area.

"I have a feeling that he's in here right now…" she murmured and followed her instinct down the path towards the Goddess Pond.

Celia was right and found Wyatt sitting down and looking into the reflection of the pool. Celia walked over slowly without catching Wyatt's attention.

"Hi," she finally greeted him, but not in a manner to scare him. Wyatt turned around slowly and a small smile appeared on his face.

"Hi, Celia," he replied as Celia sat down close next to him.

"What are you up to?" she wondered, turning to him and smiling.

"Just thinking, really…" Wyatt said, looking back at the reflections in the water. Celia looked into the Goddess Pond as well, mostly looking at Wyatt's reflection. "What have you been up to?"

"Just thinking… as well," Celia replied with a smile. Wyatt raised an eyebrow and got more curious to her response than Celia did to his.

"About what?" he wondered.

"About you," she said. Wyatt looked up from the water and looked at Celia directly, shocked at the confident response that Celia gave him. She looked up slowly and smiled back at him.

"What?" Wyatt finally said after some silence. "I mean… in what way are you thinking of me?"

"In… a way that I've been thinking of you for quite some time actually," Celia explained. "I just haven't been comfortable enough to express my feelings this way until now."

"I see…" Wyatt replied, looking down into the water. Because he hadn't said anything for a while, Celia started to look sad and worried. However, she got confused when Wyatt reached into his belongings.

"Huh…?" wondered Celia as he did this.

"Obviously, I'm not good at expressing my feelings either," Wyatt explained, smiling and holding out the blue feather that he got yesterday to her. "Not in any sense, but especially not about something like love."

"Wyatt…" Celia whispered, seeming to have melted when Wyatt had mentioned love. He moved over closer to her, still holding the blue feather out towards her.

"I was a little unsure at first because I find love to be a difficult thing…" Wyatt said. "But I know how I feel about you and me and getting this blue feather confirmed my feelings. I love you."

"I love you, too," replied Celia, tearing up a little.

"Will you marry me?" Wyatt asked, even though it was obvious what he was proposing. Celia giggled and nodded, clasping her hands together.

"Yes, of course I will!" she said, moving into his arms for a big hug and then the two kissed. Celia laughed softly, able to keep the tears from flowing, and took the blue feather.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?" said Wyatt with a big smile. Celia nodded.

"I always dreamed of receiving a blue feather…" she explained, looking at what she held in her left hand. "My mom got proposed to with one. They're so rare! It's such a wonderful proposal."

"I'm just so happy," Wyatt said. "I haven't been able to share my feelings like this with someone in a long time."

"I'm really glad that I'm the person who finally got you to open up!" Celia chuckled, giving Wyatt another kiss. He explained that he probably would act pretty similar to before around people, but that he would not be as bitter. "I sort of expected that to be honest."

"I guess we already know each other pretty well then!" sighed Wyatt with a smile, scratching the back of his head. "When would you want to get married?" Celia thought for a moment, crossing her arms as she pondered.

"How about the end of the season?" she suggested. "Or I suppose the beginning of the next season I mean. That way the snow will be all melted and it will be a brand new year!"

"That sounds great to me," agreed Wyatt. "We'd better go tell everyone… they'll be so shocked." Celia laughed and nodded. They decided to go tell her household first.

"You're getting married!?" Vesta yelled before flashing a toothy grin. "Well, congratulations, you two! I sorta had a feeling, especially after today!" she turned to Celia, who smiled and nodded.

"I'm glad that you're so happy about this, Auntie!" the brunette said, giving Vesta a big hug. After their embrace, Celia turned to the other member of the household. "Marlin…"

"Congratulations… to the both of you," he said, turning to Celia and then to Wyatt. He didn't seem resentful and even held his hand out to shake Wyatt's, which he did. Celia smiled and gave Marlin a big hug.

"Thank you," she whispered and smiled to him. Marlin let a half-smile pass his lips and shrugged lightly. "Let's go tell the others!" Celia suggested to Wyatt.

"Good idea," he agreed. The two said goodbye and left to go tell the rest of the valley their plans to get married. "Alex is probably going to freak out the most… so why don't we tell her last?" Wyatt suggested with a small laugh.

"Sure," replied Celia, laughing back.

The two got across the whole valley pretty quickly and told everyone their plans. Everyone was very happy and excited for them with the girls being the most excited after their meeting with Celia earlier in the day.

"Time to tell Alex," Wyatt said, quietly. They had just told Takakura in his house and he was very pleased, saying that Wyatt's dad especially would be proud that he would be getting married.

"I think she'll be in her house," Celia said.

"Hey guys!" Alex yelled, running up to Wyatt and Celia. It seemed a bit like she knew what the situation was, but then they realized that she didn't know. "I've just been in the mine all day. How have you been?"

"Why don't you come into the house and we'll have a drink?" suggested Wyatt with a coy smile, making Celia giggle silently.

"Sounds like a great idea to me!" the redhead replied. "I'll take a very cold lemonade." Alex said as they walked into the house. Wyatt made some tea for himself and Celia and got Alex her lemonade. The two specifically waited for Alex to stop drinking her lemonade before telling her the news.

"Wyatt proposed to me today!" Celia finally said with a big smile. Alex looked very shocked, she made a squeaking noise, she flashed a huge smile, and then she screamed.

"OH MY GOD!" she yelled, running around the house hugging Wyatt and Celia randomly and continuously for at least a minute. Once Alex calmed down, she got thirsty again and poured herself some more lemonade. "That's so exciting!"

"It is!" Wyatt replied, nodding and smiling. He turned and noticed that Alex seemed to have knocked and old painting over that was on the wall. "Oh, let me fix that."

"You know, that painting looks pretty heavy for just a painting…" noted Celia. She got up and walked with Wyatt to the painting. Alex got curious too and walked over.

"Why don't we lift it and see if there's anything there?" she suggested. Wyatt and Celia agreed that this was a good idea and lifted the painting.

"Well, there's nothing on the wall…" mumbled Celia. However, Wyatt was already ahead of her and Alex and was taking something off of the back of the painting.

"It looks like a little book or a diary," Wyatt explained. It was a little dusty and from the painting the little book was only showing the back, which was all black. He turned over the book to see the cover and Alex and Celia hovered over to get a better look. "Electra Heart?"

The cover of the book was a woman posing with her silver hair curled up. She looked very elegant and the words "Electra Heart" were at the bottom and the effect of the cover made it seem a bit like the font was glowing.

"Go on and open it!" Alex said, very curious.

The first page inside the book was a table of contents. There were four parts to this little book. The first "chapter" or part of the book was titled "The Primadonna." The second was titled "Su-Barbie-A." The third was titled "Teen Idles." Oddly, the last title was completely blacked out.

"That black out had to have been on purpose…" noted Alex.

"I think so, too," Celia agreed.

"It's weird, you can tell that the book's been messed with," explained Wyatt. "It only has two pages and you can tell that there are so many other pages. They must have just been ripped out."

"Let's see what the second page shows…" suggested Celia. Wyatt nodded and turned the page.

On the front side of the first page was a picture with a caption at the bottom. The top left of the page showed that this page was part of the "The Primadonna" section of the diary. There was also a little "1" to note that it was the first page of the listed section. The picture was of a girl, most likely the girl on the cover, with white blonde hair in a bob. Her left eye was covered by her hair and it seemed a bit like the hair was a wig. The sun was shining in on her left side and there was a blank space to her right. The entire picture was in black and white. For the picture, the caption read, with hearts surrounding both sides: " DEAR DIARY, MY NAME IS ELECTRA HEART "

"What on earth…?" Alex wondered, staring at the page for a long time. "It's very interesting and artistic… but I don't get it or why it's here."

"Let me turn the page," Wyatt decided, turning the page. This showed that there were no other pages in the diary, but there was definitely room for a lot more.

On the back side of the first page was a picture similar to the one on the front side. It was a picture of the same girl with the same hair or wig all in black and white. Her shirt had more of a flowery pattern and the background was darker. The girl had her eyes closed and was powdering her face with some big brush. The caption read, with hearts on both sides: " LOVE WILL NEVER BE FOREVER "

"That's depressing," Celia said with a frown. "This Electra Heart woman is very curious. I'm sure that this diary was left here on purpose for you, Wyatt."

"Do you think?" Wyatt wondered. Celia and Alex nodded.

"I think so, too," Alex added, looking back at the picture. "The mystery of Electra Heart begins… this is interesting."

"Why don't we just keep this between the three of us for now?" suggested Wyatt. "I mean, maybe there are missing pages across the valley, but we've got more important things to worry about for now."

"Sounds good…" Celia said before drifting off. "Hmm. There's something scratched on here where the diary was." she was prodding a bit at the painting. Wyatt and Alex looked over to see what it said.

"A savage journey into the heart of the American dream…" Wyatt read out loud. "This really is interesting. I'll definitely try to look into it as much as I can later. But I think right now we have better things to focus on." Wyatt turned to Celia and gave her an embrace, which made Celia giggle.

"I will agree with that wholeheartedly!" the farmer said, still laughing happily. Wyatt let go of Celia for the moment being to set down the diary of Electra Heart on the small desk next to his bed.


	16. Stars Come Out

Stars Come Out

The next day was Winter 5th. The whole valley was buzzing about Wyatt and Celia being engaged and it being the first wedding in a long time. Alex had to keep reminding everyone that the Starry Night Festival was planned on the next day. Everyone was getting excited about the festival as well.

"You know what's funny," Alex said to people that she explained the festival to. "I actually forgot that we planned to have a Firefly Festival on the third… but I forgot."

"Alex!" Rock sighed. "How could you forget!?"

"Sorry!" Alex replied with a small shrug and a sheepish chuckle. "But it's alright; I'll definitely remember to have the festival in place next year."

"It was meant to be the Firefly Festival, right?" Wyatt asked. Alex nodded.

"But we've got the Starry Night Festival tonight! We should all focus on that, right? The stars are going to look beautiful," the redhead tried to get everyone's mind off of the missed opportunity of the Firefly Festival.

"That's true," Celia agreed, making Alex sigh a sigh of relief. "It's gonna be a great night, right?" Celia squeezed her fiancé's hand and Wyatt smiled back at her and nodded. Alex suddenly got sad again and sighed a sad sigh.

"What's wrong, Alex?" Lumina wondered.

"Well… you all have dates for the night…" explained Alex. "I don't."

"Not yet, at least," Rock corrected her with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Alex shrugged off the positivity. She decided to leave, saying she wanted to help others be informed about the festival.

"You know…" Celia began, with a coy look on her face. "Marlin is going to ask her out to the Starry Night Festival."

"Really?" Wyatt asked curiously. "Why didn't you tell her then?" Celia giggled.

"It'd ruin the fun of it all!" she explained. The other three agreed with this.

Outside the mining area by the waterfall, Flora and Carter were having a conversation. Unknown to them, however, Daryl was standing across the river and listening in on their conversation.

"So you don't plan on having a date for the Starry Night Festival either, right?" Flora asked the archaeologist. Carter nodded.

"That's correct," he said. Flora nodded back and smiled.

"Perfect!" she replied. "We can enjoy a meal at the tent and then just watch the stars right here. It'll be a fun night."

"Yeah, and I'll be cooking this time so neither of us will be poisoned…" Carter murmured under his breath.

"What was that, Carter?" Flora asked, pushing her glasses into place.

"Nothing!" Carter replied with a nervous chuckle. Flora smiled back and nodded before making her way into the mine. Carter followed suit. Meanwhile, Daryl was still staring and seemed enraged.

"If that's the way he treats her… that just isn't fair…" Daryl grumbled. As he was mumbling things under his breath, Mukumuku popped up behind him. Once Daryl finally decided to turn around, he turned back to the river and did a double take.

"Mofafa?" Mukumuku tipped his head to the side. Daryl was silent.

"AHH!" he yelled as he ran off. Mukumuku turned his head slightly to the side again and then just carried on about his business.

Muffy hadn't been really getting close with anyone outside of the valley, so she decided to stay in the valley for the festival. Griffin suggested that the two of them enjoy a dinner together and then watch the stars with others by the beach. Muffy agreed that this was a good idea.

The sun started setting and Alex was just about finished going around and telling people about the Starry Night Festival. She got a little worn out and sad about not being asked by Marlin, so Alex just sat down on the bridge with her legs hanging over the ledge.

"Hey, Alex," Marlin greeted Alex, surprising her. She looked up to see him standing at the end of the bridge, near Alex.

"Hi, Marlin," she smiled. "Oh, should I move? Am I in your way?" Alex stood up in case this was the case. Marlin shook his head.

"No, I was looking for you actually," he explained.

"Me?" Alex wondered, pretty shocked. She placed her hand on her chest. "Why would that be?"

"Why else would I be looking on the girl the day before the Starry Night Festival?" Marlin asked, putting his hands in his pocket. Alex was still confused and Marlin sighed. "Do you want to be my date for the Starry Night Festival?" he finally asked.

"Really!?" Alex gasped and Marlin nodded. She really wanted to squeal, but didn't want to scare Marlin off, so she just nodded softly and took a deep breath. "Well, yes! I'd love to go with you. I'll meet you tomorrow at your house for dinner."

"See you then," Marlin nodded. Alex smiled at him and walked back towards the ranch.

Nami was looking out to the ocean and standing on the beach, silent and with one hand in her pocket. The sun had fully gone down and it was dark. Nami usually came to the beach, especially late at night.

"Hey, Nami," Gustafa greeted the redhead. Nami turned around to see Gustafa drawing closer and he stopped when he was next to her.

"What are you doing here?" Nami wondered, not in a cynical tone. Gustafa scratched his neck slowly and turned to the side.

"Well, I live just right there…" he pointed to his yurt and chuckled. "I was looking for you anyway! This may be blunt, and I know that my yurt isn't the nicest place… but I was thinking that… you could be my date for the Starry Night Festival?" Nami hadn't turned to look at Gustafa the whole time he was talking and kept looking out to the sea. She finally turned to him and scratched the back of her head, as she always did.

"Yeah, sure," Nami agreed, allowing a small smile to pass on her face. "It'll be a fun time."

"Great!" Gustafa smiled. "So… I'll come by the inn when it's about time for you to come over to my place. Sounds good?" Nami nodded. Gustafa said that was great and said goodbye to Nami and made his way back to his yurt to go to bed. Nami stayed out longer to look out to the sea, but eventually made her way back to the inn and also went to bed.

* * *

><p>The next day was Winter 6th. It was the day of the Starry Night Festival and all of the males in the valley were hard at work to get their dishes very nice for their dates. All the girls decided that it would be nice to gather at the mansion while they waited for the time to go to their dates' houses.<p>

"I'm very excited," Lumina admitted once everyone was gathered in her large room. "Apparently, Rock never cooks! Even though the meal might be terrible, it's the thought that counts."

"Not if you don't survive past the meal…" Alex mumbled under her breath, playing with her hair. Lumina giggled, having heard Alex's comment.

"I'm sure that Ruby, or I guess Tim, will have cooked up some back-up so that we don't die," she explained. "Anyway, I'm sure that you're excited too, Alex."

"Yes!" the redhead beamed, excited to talk about why she was happy for the day. "It was a big step for Marlin to ask me on a date and I'm going to make sure that I don't ruin it. I'm going to wear the best outfit ever!"

"Um," Celia raised her hand as if she were a student. "I have a suggestion actually. Marlin really doesn't like all that flashy stuff from girls. He likes girls who are… pretty simple when it comes to make-up at least. Obviously a dress on a girl is fine, but not like you were clearly a model."

"You know… that makes a lot of sense," Alex put a hand on her chin and thought about Celia's suggestion. "Thank you, Celia." Celia nodded.

"I'm really excited for my date with Wyatt tonight," the brunette decided to give her input on the festival. "I already know that he's a good cook, so I just want to watch the stars with him."

"That's what I'm most excited for, too," Flora said, talking about watching the stars. "Obviously Carter isn't someone that I'm interested in, but we'll probably join townspeople to watch the stars and it'll be very fun."

"I think that's what me and Griffin are planning," Muffy told the group, "so I'll probably see you again later tonight, Flora!"

"Great!" Flora smiled and put her hands together in her lap. They all turned to Nami because she seemed to be even quieter than usual. She looked up to them.

"What?" Nami asked.

"So how are you feeling about seeing Gustafa?" Celia wondered with a smile.

"It'll be good," Nami replied with a little nod. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly until Sebastian knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Lumina called out. Sebastian opened the door and greeted all the women in the room.

"Rock is waiting at the front for you," he explained. Lumina thanked him and Sebastian left.

"Wow, I can't believe that it's pretty much already time to get some food!" Alex said with a laugh and then held her stomach as she stood up. "Good thing, too… I'm pretty hungry!"

Everyone piled out of Romana's mansion and made their way to their respective homes to finish getting ready, if need be. Lumina and Rock made their way to the inn together.

"You're going to love what I made," Rock told Lumina. "I was going directly by Ruby's book, but the first time I got impatient and tried to modify it to make it go quicker… that didn't work well."

"I sorta want to see that concoction…" Lumina said with a laugh. Rock shook his head and laughed as well.

"Oh, no you don't," he said. "But! I made it again and forced myself to have patience and the dish came out perfectly."

"I'm glad," Lumina smiled. The two entered the inn and sat down in the kitchen area with Tim and Ruby. Tim revealed all of these fancy dishes that he cooked.

"Okay, Rock, you can take out your food now," Tim told his son. Rock nodded and took two plates to the table. One was simply pickles and the other was a big omelet.

"Simple, but looks good!" said Lumina as she immediately went for Rock's food. "I approve." Rock did a little cheer and sat down to eat. Tim did the same and the four were all enjoying their meal and having good conversation. After the meal, Tim and Ruby went to join the other villagers in the open field in front of Daryl's house to watch the stars.

"Where do you want to go?" Rock asked Lumina. She thought for a moment and then an idea quickly popped into Lumina's head.

"Why don't we go to the mansion?" she suggested. "Romana and Sebastian will be with the other villagers and since it's on a high hill then maybe we'll get a better view of the stars." Rock grinned.

"Sounds like a good idea to me!" he said. The two left and spent the rest of the night outside at the mansion, lying down where they could find a soft spot of grass.

Flora and Carter finished their meal pretty quickly, as they were excited to meet up with people and see the stars. Muffy and Griffin were the same way, so they were happy when the four of them were ready at the same time.

The villagers were all in front of Daryl's house in the area with some trees and in front of it. It was pretty lively, so everyone was chatting away and having a fun time.

Daryl spent essentially the whole night behind a tree close to the pond, watching Flora. There was no one really standing by the pond area, so no one wound up seeing him.

Wyatt and Celia were enjoying their meal as well.

"You really went all-out, didn't you?" Celia marveled at what Wyatt cooked for her after they finished eating. Wyatt gave a modest shrug and Celia smiled. "Aww, well thank you very much." she stood up and gave him a kiss.

"It's getting dark enough to go outside, you know," Wyatt pointed out as he went to take the dishes to quickly clean them up. "Where do you want to go?"

"Hmm…" Celia paused and thought for a moment. "Why don't we just stay here on the ranch? That would be really relaxing." Wyatt smiled.

"Sounds good to me," he said. The two left the house and went to the opposite side of the ranch. Once there, Wyatt leaned on the fence for his livestock and Celia climbed on top and sat on one of the railings.

"The stars really look great tonight," marveled Celia, resting her arm on Wyatt to balance herself so that she wouldn't fall over. "I love that really bright blue one."

"I was just looking at that one," Wyatt said and turned to Celia with a smile. She smiled back and gave him a big kiss.

Alex was very prompt for being at Marlin's house. Vesta decided that she would eat and go to the festival early, so the two had the house to themselves. Alex took Celia's advice and looked fresh and natural for the night.

"I'm really impressed by your dishes!" Alex told Marlin as they ate. "You really grow great vegetables and it shows in the food." Marlin thanked Alex for the compliment on the food and crops.

"I think your dishes would be good, too," he replied, finishing his meal and lifting his plate. "You seem to grow good crops. I'd love to try it sometime." Marlin asked Alex if she was done eating and she said that she was. He lifted her plate and took them to the sink.

"I am a pretty good chef, not to be boastful or anything," Alex said with a little laugh. She stood up and walked over to Marlin, watching him clean the dishes. "It's mostly baking that I'm exceptional at, though."

"Oh, well I'm not that great at baking," Marlin explained, drying his hands. "We would make a good cooking team then."

"I guess we would!" Alex replied, blushing a little. "So, should we just go across the path from here on the little hill and watch the stars there?" she suggested.

"Sure," Marlin nodded. The two left the farm and made their way to the opposite side of the path and down to the hill that Alex talked about. The two lied down and looked up to the stars. Alex had her hands in her lap and Marlin had his hands on the back of his head.

"The stars are amazing tonight," Alex beamed.

"The stars always look great in the valley," Marlin explained, "especially in Winter. You really chose a great time to have this festival."

"Thank you," said Alex, as modestly as she could. They were silent after having this conversation. Eventually, Marlin casually put his arm around Alex's neck. She turned to Marlin and smiled. After this motion, Alex scooted closer and laid her head on Marlin's chest so that he could have a better hold of her.

Gustafa had picked up Nami from the inn earlier and led her back to his yurt. Obviously since his yurt was so little, it was a little difficult for Gustafa to make an amazing meal. However, Nami and even Gustafa himself were surprised that the meal wound up being so good.

"I hope you enjoyed it," Gustafa said to Nami, who simply nodded. "Shall we go to the beach and watch the stars? I think the beach is far away enough from the villagers that we'll have enough privacy."

"Okay," Nami nodded again. The two got up and made a short trip from Gustafa's home to the beach. The two started looking up and enjoying the stars.

"They truly are amazing tonight, aren't they?" Gustafa was enjoying the sight of the sky. Nami didn't say anything, but just looked up to the sky.

The two were still at the beach by the time almost everyone, or at least all of the villagers in the meadow, had gone home. By this point, Nami was just looking straight out to the sea and not even bothering with the stars.

"Nami…" Gustafa started talking. "I've noticed recently… there's something wrong." Nami shook her head.

"No… nothing's wrong," Nami said, slowly. However, she said this without even looking at Gustafa's face. The musician looked at her somewhat sternly.

"Nami… if that's really the case, then tell that to my face," he requested. Nami closed her eyes and finally turned to Gustafa. When she opened her eyes, Nami looked like she was starting to cry. Gustafa quickly gasped and apologized. "I don't mean to pry… I'll be quiet about it now." Nami shook her head again and her tears vanished.

"No… I would have needed to talk to someone about this anyway," Nami began with a deep sigh. "I've… run out of money. So I'm going to leave the valley at the end of the year." Gustafa gasped again.

"What!?" he said. "Where are you going to go?" Nami shrugged to Gustafa's question.

"Some place where I can get work," she replied. "I know that I can't get work here. No one needs a worker anywhere. And I'm not going to force Tim and Ruby to let me to stay with no pay. They've already been nicer than they should have been."

"Nami…" Gustafa looked down and frowned. He then looked up to her. "Why… why don't you just live in my house?" Gustafa offered a big offer. Nami was silent for a moment and then sighed, shaking her head.

"Gustafa… I know that you already barely get by," Nami said, looking at him with a small smile. "You don't need a freeloader living in your house."

"So there's nothing that will make you stay?" Gustafa said, almost to the brink of tears himself. Nami frowned and shook her head again. Gustafa looked down, very hurt.

"Hey…" Nami walked closer and lifted his head up. "I want you to know… that you're the main reason why I want to stay. And… I promise that I will be back. Eventually. I swear it."

"You promise?" Gustafa forced a small smile.

"I swear it," Nami repeated, smiling back. She lifted Gustafa closer to her and gave him a kiss. They stayed embraced and in this kiss for a while. When their kiss was over, Nami let out a sigh again. "Well… I'd better get back to the inn."

"Let me walk you there," insisted Gustafa. Nami smiled at him and nodded. The two walked to the inn, holding hands, and enjoying the moment for as long as they could.


	17. Here Lies Love

Here Lies Love

The next day was Winter 7th. The news of Nami leaving stayed within the confines of herself and Gustafa because, naturally, Nami wasn't the type to want a big deal to be made out of her leaving. She was acting a lot more lively than she had been, so Nami probably felt a little better telling the main person in the valley about her needing to leave.

The day wasn't spent doing anything exciting and went by fairly quickly.

* * *

><p>The next day was Winter 8th. Alex decided to get a few people together so that they could discuss the last festival of the year in two days.<p>

"Obviously it's got to be outside," recommended Flora, quickly. She, Alex, Wyatt, Patrick, Cody, Ruby, and Hugh were all gathered to make suggestions. It was a very random group, but Alex assumed that it was very diverse so that many different opinions would help make the festival the best it could be.

"Let's have it at the beach!" Hugh suggested very quickly. Everyone else seemed to agree that this was a good idea.

"Okay, so it'll be at the beach then," Alex made a mental note of this and smiled. "Any other suggestions?"

"We need fireworks," Patrick nodded. "Although, of course I was going to be the one to say this." he then laughed, knowing that he and his brother loved to flaunt their fireworks.

"Yeah, that's a good one," Wyatt agreed with Patrick. "We can have them go off once it's the new year for a decent amount of time to give a party vibe. It'll be a signal that the big party of the year has started."

"I think that we should have the people do something unique to tell that it's the new year…" Cody wondered out loud, crossing his arms.

"Anyone have any ideas for this?" asked Alex, looking around. Most people wound up turning to Ruby because she hadn't given any input into the festival yet.

"Umm…" Ruby put her hands together and thought. "Bells? Maybe we all get bells and ring it right after the countdown to the new year… and we ring the bells in celebration."

"That sounds like a good idea to me actually!" Alex said. The others agreed.

"How will we know when to stop though?" wondered Flora, pushing her glasses a little bit away from the end of her nose.

"How about until Kassey and I set the fireworks off?" Patrick suggested. "We'll go by them close to when you ring the bells and then set them off after a few seconds."

"Okay, I think that's it all sorted then!" Alex said with a smile. "Great work everyone! Thank you!" they all said that they enjoyed contributing to the upcoming festival and all left happy and excited for the end of the year.

The rest of the day was pretty standard and went by quickly.

* * *

><p>The next day was Winter 9th. The day was pretty standard, but Alex and Marlin made plans to hang out together for the night because it was already getting warmer and nicer out. The two decided that they would just enjoy the night at the Goddess Pond.<p>

"This is really nice," Alex said, smiling and leaning into Marlin's shoulder as the two just watched the calm ripples of the water in the pond move around.

"It is," agreed Marlin. "It's something that we never really do… so we'll have to make sure to do this more often."

"Agreed," the redhead giggled. She let out a sigh and was silent for a moment. "It's so weird how much has happened in the past year and how much we've all changed."

"It's always weird how much things change over time…" Marlin noted. "Although, this year seemed to change things a lot more than usual. Probably because you and Wyatt came to live in the valley to take the place of your dads."

"What were our dads like in the valley, anyway?" wondered Alex, staring into the water. Marlin took a moment to recall the memory of Alex and Wyatt's dads.

"Wyatt's dad was sort of similar to him now," began Marlin. "Not in the rude way, but quiet and sort of blunt. He was nicer and more adventurous. Or, at least he was more adventurous in the last few years before he left the valley. I wonder why that is…"

"That's interesting…" Alex pondered about Wyatt's dad. "Oh, so what about my dad?" Marlin chuckled and turned to the redhead.

"He was exactly like you," he smiled. Alex smiled back. "So, why did your dad come here to the valley by himself?" Alex frowned.

"It was nothing to do with my dad really… so I harbor no hatred towards him," Alex started to explain. "It was just… my mother was really crazy. Like… literally mentally insane. He drove my dad away and this made all of us very sad, but it's understandable that he had to leave. Eventually, my mother was sent away to a mental institute, so my older brother really took care of me. Luckily, he's a great deal older than me, so it wasn't too difficult."

"That's very noble and mature of your brother," Marlin marveled with a smile. "He must be a great guy. I'd love to meet him one day."

"Yeah, Kal's great," Alex smiled. The two were quiet for a while and Alex said that she wanted to ask Marlin a question. "This may actually be out of line to ask… and I apologize in advance… but are you sad about Celia getting married?" Marlin was silent.

"You know, just forget I asked," Alex quickly said, out of embarrassment. "And to think I would have learned to keep my mouth shut when I should…" she mumbled under her breath, but Marlin stopped her.

"It's okay, Alex," he said, calmly. "I'm not actually sad about it. I thought I'd be more sad than I was, but I really did some thinking and I'm definitely not sad about Wyatt and Celia getting married."

"Why?" Alex leaned up a little and asked, although it wasn't really like she needed to ask this. Marlin paused and smiled towards Alex.

"Because I love you," Marlin told Alex. Alex just laughed a little at what Marlin said, but then actually thought about what Marlin said and paused. She then turned to him.

"Wh… what?" Alex wondered. Marlin was still smiling.

"Alex… I love you," he repeated himself. Alex smiled and started tearing up, but held back the tears from flowing and smiled. She got closer to Marlin and the two kissed.

After the two had their passionate moment together, Marlin had something to add about being happy that Wyatt and Celia are getting married.

"You know, Celia had a proposal from someone out of town and Vesta seemed very up for her accepting the proposal," explained Marlin.

"Really?" Alex wondered, pretty shocked about this. "I'm guessing that Celia wasn't very fond of this guy she was engaged to?" Marlin shook his head.

"Well, yes and no…" he began. "She didn't really know him. It was kind of an arranged proposal? I don't really know how to explain it. But she definitely didn't want to get married. I'm sure that being around Wyatt didn't help her."

"So Vesta was unhappy when Wyatt proposed to her?" asked Alex. Marlin shook his head again.

"Vesta thought that the proposal would make Celia happy, so when she found out that the previous proposal didn't make her happy, but Wyatt's did, she was even happier," Marlin said.

"That's great," Alex smiled and let out a small sigh. The two were together for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p>The next day was Winter 10th. The whole day was spent with everyone anticipation the upcoming events. At night was the New Year's Eve Festival and then the next day was the marriage between Celia and Wyatt.<p>

"The gathering's begun!" Alex said. She was inside Wyatt's house and looked outside to see people gathering by the beach once the sun set. After doing her chores, Alex spent the whole day getting ready and looking pretty.

"I know I don't look really different, but I always like "getting ready" for festivals," Wyatt said with a little laugh. His letterman jacket was hanging on the chair and he was dressed in his usual all black attire and fixed the lacing of his Americana shoes.

"Is your hair more silver?" Alex joked, smirking and crossing her arms. Wyatt frowned a little and looked at the redhead. He brushed his hand through his messy hair, probably because it was a little more silver than usual.

"Okay…" Wyatt grabbed his jacket and turned to Alex. "Are you sure you don't need a jacket? It's kinda cold tonight and we'll be out late." Alex shook her head.

"After you've worn outfits that I've worn and been a model, you get used to wearing less than temperature-fitting clothing," she assured Wyatt with a grin. "Now, come on! Let's go pick up our dates and get to the beach."

"Let's go," Wyatt smiled and nodded, putting his jacket on and walking out of his house with Alex. The two joined Celia and Marlin on Vesta's Farm. Vesta walked with the four of them to the beach.

"So we've got two hours, right?" Vesta asked one of the four because she didn't have a way of telling the time. Alex checked and nodded.

"Next year we should have a big flashing sign that tells how much time we have from 12 hours prior to the new year," suggested Celia with a dreamy smile.

"Good idea!" agreed Alex, taking a mental note. "I'll have to ask Daryl soon so that he can actually perfect something like this."

Everyone was all at the beach already and they were all ready for the festivities to begin. They were all enjoying how nice the night was to have a festival like this and they were complimenting Ruby and whoever else contributed to the food because it seemed to taste especially as good this year, even with the lack of a variety of crops being that Winter was just ending.

"I don't know about you…" Nami was saying to Cody as she ate a dish, "but I love the fact that everything has a strawberry taste to it. They're common Winter crops and my favorite fruit."

"I helped with that!" Alex chimed as she passed Nami when she made this comment. Nami nodded and gave Alex a gesture that she had done a good job.

"I really like it, too," Marlin explained, making Alex blush.

"You need to stop that!" the redhead half-joked, hitting Marlin in the chest, lightly. "My face will end up the same color as my hair and people will think that I'M a strawberry!" Marlin laughed at her joke and gave her a little cuddle.

Down by the shoreline where no one was, Gustafa was looking out of the water and away from the partygoers. He didn't seem very happy as he looked out to the sea.

"Hey," Nami called out to him and walked over with the plate of food that she already had with her. Gustafa turned around and frowned when he saw Nami.

"Hey," he replied, in a sad tone. Nami finished chewing whatever she was eating and stood next to Gustafa. She took a strawberry and turned to him, holding out the food to him. Gustafa shook his head.

"Open," insisted Nami, with no joking tone to her voice or smile, making the moment quite strange. Gustafa opened his mouth and Nami gave him the strawberry. He seemed to enjoy the food and laughed at the situation when he was done eating. Nami smiled back. The two sat down in the sand in silence until Gustafa decided to bring up what was on his mind.

"So… you're leaving tomorrow," he mentioned. Nami turned to look towards the horizon and nodded, setting down her plate.

"I could come back, you know," Nami replied. "Once I have more money."

"Yeah, but how long would that take?" Gustafa wondered, turning to Nami. She didn't look over to him and gave a small shrug after a moment of not replying.

"Hopefully…" she began after figuring out a proper answer. "Hopefully not very long." Gustafa simply nodded and decided not to question her further. Nami surprised him by moving closer to him. "But do you promise to wait for me until I get back?" Gustafa didn't even hesitate to nod again.

"Of course I do," he smiled. Nami nodded back.

"Good," she pulled Gustafa closer so that they could enjoy a private kiss together. They then decided that they should join the party and not dwell on sad thoughts anymore, and so that's what they did.

Finally, it was nearly time to ring in the new year, literally. The bells were passed around by Wyatt and Alex and Kassey and Patrick went to their fireworks set up closer to their house so that they were ready to get the fireworks started quickly once the new year began.

Alex began counting down loudly from 10, standing on something to get height and so that she could project her voice. Everyone was excitedly holding on to their bells, ready to ring in the new year.

"3… 2… 1… Happy New Year!" Alex yelled, but the "New Year" was mostly covered up by the sound of everyone clanging their bells for under a minute when they heard and saw the spark of the first firework from the new year. The ringing stopped and everyone rushed to put their bells back in the baskets where they got them and run towards the shoreline to get a better view of the fireworks as they shot into their air.

"They look even better than the ones at the Beach Festival!" Lumina beamed, holding hands with Rock and looking up at the fireworks.

"It's even cooler to look at them from the reflection of the water. The ocean's still tonight and it looks great!" Rock said, excitedly. Lumina did so and agreed that it was a very good way to look at the fireworks, but she preferred to just look at them directly.

"Ooh, that one was a flower…" Celia smiled at a blue firework that went off and then turned into a green color as it faded.

"They're all great fireworks this year," Wyatt added. The fireworks continued for a little while longer and everyone was all excited about the events that the party was good for the rest of the night.

Wyatt and Celia had one more conversation late in the night, enjoying each others' company on the night before their wedding. They were sitting on the bench overlooking the river under the tree. The snow had all melted. Before the two decided to leave each other until the morning, Wyatt had something to say to Celia that was a little out of nowhere.

"I… know what I want written in my gravestone," Wyatt said.

"Oh?" Celia replied. Wyatt nodded.

"I know that when my number's up, when I am called by God above, don't have my name inscribed into the stone," he explained. "Just say 'Here Lies Love.'" Celia smiled at what Wyatt said and gave him a kiss.

"Good night,"

* * *

><p>The next day was Spring 1st. It was the day of Wyatt and Celia's wedding down at the beach. Everyone was down at the beach to witness the event. Wyatt was in a nice black tux and Celia was wearing a beautiful dress. A priest named Carter was called in to wed the two.<p>

"Do you take this man to be your husband?" he asked Celia, who turned to Wyatt with a big smile.

"I do," Celia said with a big nod. Carter nodded back.

"Do you take this woman to be your wife?" Carter asked Wyatt. He had a small smile on his face.

"Yes, I do," Wyatt gave Celia a small nod.

"You may now kiss the bride!" Carter told the newlyweds. Wyatt and Celia turned to each other, still with smiles on their faces, and had their first kiss as husband and wife. Everyone watching applauded their union.

"I can't wait to start our lives together," Celia smiled and told Wyatt with a little hint of a blush on her face.

"I promise to make you happy, always."


	18. Changes

Changes

A few years later…

It was time once again for the first of Spring to roll on after a fun night at the New Year's Eve Festival.

On the Diamond Ranch, things were good. Wyatt's and Alex's houses were both expanded because Celia wanted a nice, big kitchen, as did Alex. Both houses had large beds now to accommodate the two couples. Also, close to the large bed, were Wyatt's and Alex's old beds for their kids. Next to the beds were toy chests. Wyatt's son's toy chest had a wooden car and Alex's daughter's chest had a sketch pad.

Wyatt's son's name was Liam. He would wear green overalls that Celia picked out. In fact, the whole outfit basically looked like a male, toddler version of what Celia typically wore. Liam is essentially the spitting image of Wyatt, except with jet black hair that can't really be explained why has that hair color. In terms of personality, Liam is pretty much very similar to Wyatt after marrying Celia and is pretty quiet, but is also a nice person.

Alex's daughter's name was Guinevere, but pretty much everyone around the valley was already calling her Gwen. Her outfit was definitely chosen by her mother, being a blue outfit with light, earthy-colored fishes swimming on the bottom area of the outfit and a matching blue shark hat. Marlin was a little nervous that the shark would have scared Gwen, but she loved it and hates taking it off. Gwen got Marlin's dark hair and Alex's tan skin, blue eyes, and face. She also got her loud and cheerful personality off of her mother, but ironically gets easily annoyed at Alex and has more of an affinity to Marlin. Gwen somewhat has gotten Alex's talent to draw, but she only ever sketches mommy's clothes, what Auntie Vesta's wearing, "Cewia's" cute clothing, and the like.

"Are you excited to see everyone at Romana's mansion today, Gwenie?" Alex asked her daughter, picking her up and laughing with her.

"Yeah!" Gwen replied back, cheering as she was being thrown lightly in the air.

"Okay, you two, that's enough," Marlin walked into the room from the kitchen with a smile, giving Alex a kiss a cheek and then Gwen a kiss on the forehead.

"Dad!" she giggled. Marlin smiled and watched as Alex set her down.

Alex had on a new outfit that was a lot more fitting for a mother and farmer. She was wearing an all-black ensemble except for her blue boots. Alex had a black camisole, a black skirt, and a black leather jacket.

Pretty soon after Celia and Wyatt were married, Marlin proposed to Alex and the two got married about a season or longer after the proposal. However, they weren't the next couple after Celia and Wyatt to get married.

"We'd better go get Wyatt and the others before we head off to the mansion," Alex said as the three left their house and knocked on Wyatt's door. Wyatt, Celia, and Liam were all ready to go.

"Apple!" Liam gave this nickname to Alex because of her bright hair, which Alex seemed to enjoy as a nickname, but Wyatt scolded Liam on it.

"Oh, Wyatt," Alex giggled. "It's not a bad nickname really! I'm surprised that if you think it's so insulting that you didn't think of it a few years ago."

"Shall… we go then?" Celia suggested, trying to get everyone away from the current conversation. They all agreed that they were to go to the mansion and so they did.

On their way to the mansion, they turned and looked across the bridge and river to see the new small house on the hill by the tree with a gravestone and a bench in front of it. All the adults looked rather sad when they looked at it and saw Galen sitting out on the bench looking at the grave.

Nina died some time after the three big weddings in the valley and Galen wanted to move into a smaller house. His and Nina's old house was left open for Dr. Hardy to move into the valley permanently, mainly to keep an eye on Galen.

The two families walked on past the residential district. Between Dr. Hardy and Chris, Wally, and Hugh's, houses a new house was built. It was a two story house that was taller than wider so that it could fit in the space.

The new family that lived there was a family much like Chris, Wally, and Hugh. The husband was a hard-working businessman who left to go to the city at 5am and got home when the sun was down. His name was Grant. Samantha is his wife who is a housewife. They have a daughter named Kate who is somewhat spoilt, but everyone was happy that Hugh now had someone to play with.

At the mansion, they found that they were the first ones there. Sebastian answered the door and Romana was already out in the main room where everyone else would be. The other three were upstairs.

When Rock and Lumina got married, which was before Alex and Marlin, there was a debate on where they would live. Rock was insisting that they live at the inn because "it's typical for the girl to live where the guy lived," but everyone knew that this was a ridiculous idea because the mansion has a lot of extra space and all Rock had at the inn was his one room. So Rock finally listened to reason and lives at the mansion.

"Oh, welcome!" Romana greeted the first arrivals. "Rock! Lumina! We've got our first arrivals!" she called out to the couple who were upstairs. Rock and Lumina quickly left the room that they were in and came down the stairs. Rock was holding his son as the two came down.

Bradley was the spitting image of Rock. Same hair, same eyes, and same skin tone. His outfit was striped with nice blues and greens all over it and a few star patterns, like on his shoes. Weirdly, he already shows signs of being exactly like his parents when it comes to his personality.

"Liam! Gwen!" Brad called out to them before turning to his more mild-mannered mother and gave a suitable, calm response to them. "Hi."

"Hi, Brad!" Gwen cheered, loudly. Liam smiled and waved to Brad. The kids all quickly made their way to a spot to all hang out and play together.

"It's so cute, isn't it?" Lumina asked with a smile, putting her hands on her hips. She was dressed a lot more mature as well, with shorter and smarter hair, and a cute dress. Marriage matured Lumina quickly, and not in the negative way. However, she still had some trouble on the piano and refused to play for the New Year's Festival party.

"It feels like so long since we've had a little community of children here in the valley," Sebastian said with a laugh.

"It must really be an exciting time for Hugh," Celia explained, smiling. "A new girl his age and all these new children means more friends for him!"

"Speaking of which, they'll probably be here soon," Marlin noted with a nod. "Chris, Wally, and Hugh I mean."

"Only if they're done with their morning workout," joked Wyatt with a half-smile.

* * *

><p>As more time passed, more people arrived at the party. Chris, Wally, and Hugh were actually next to join the party. Then Dr. Hardy. Then the fireworks twins. Then Samantha and Kate. Then Van.<p>

"I think we're only waiting on one more group…" noted Alex, looking at the crowd. Even with the festivals being common things in the valley, Alex stayed being in charge of everything festival related. A lot of the festivals got fine-tuned after the years and will probably continue to be.

The party was too big for everyone to be entirely inside. People decided to stay downstairs, but the garden was where most people were. The kids were also outside.

"Sorry that we're late!" a male voice called out. He seemed to be rushing with his wife and toddler to the party. The late arrivals were the couple Joe and Raffi with their kid Jordan. They decided to move to the valley after Joe, a carpenter, was called to the valley to make Wyatt and Alex's houses larger. Joe explained that he and his wife were looking for a place to live and the people in the valley said that they needed a carpenter-at-hand, so it would be helpful. Their house was built behind the inn, but without ruining the mini forest of trees.

Joe had brown hair mostly covered in a blue bandana with white stars all over it and a red-colored thin lining. His clothing was very carpenter-appropriate with an orange shirt rolled up a little and with a blue stripe on both arms halfway towards the shoulder. Covering the shirt was a tan vest. Joe also had on light orange cargo pants and black boots.

Raffi wasn't just a housewife and worked as a doctor out of the valley and teamed up with Dr. Hardy in the valley. Dr. Hardy was visited more for check-ups and important things, while Raffi would be visited to sell medicine and was a called doctor for check-ups in the home.

Pretty similar to Alex, Raffi is keen on fashion. Her outfit was a red dress with white bits all over it and a white and red collar. The dress had white cuffs and red buttons. A blue belt was wrapped around her waist. Raffi also wore black leggings and chunky heels that had a pattern like a rainbow ice lolly. This was topped off with the accessory of a purse with a vintage, action film "BANG" written on it.

"Where Gwen and Liam?" Jordan asked, his finger on his mouth in a troubled manner.

"They're over there with the others; don't worry," Raffi laughed and lightly pushed her son towards the group. He smiled and ran over.

Jordan was very heavily influenced by his dad and always listed him the highest on his list of heroes. He has a similar bandana to what Joe has and his toddler clothing is all Americana, which Wyatt enjoyed a lot. Jordan quickly got on with Liam and Gwen and the three connected very quickly. Their parents seemed to do the same thing.

"Sorry again about being late," sighed Raffi as Jordan and the others rushed to the tool shed to play there. "Jordan was being a pain and hiding my purse from me. It wasn't funny at all." Raffi was quick to look at her husband when she said the last sentence. Joe was hiding his smile and then let out a chuckle.

"You know, he was just playing a game…" insisted Joe, backing up his son.

"Joe!" Raffi lifted her arms into the air out of frustration. "I'll have to ground you, too!" Joe had a pretty similar manner to Rock, except Rock was more of a "party animal" and Joe was just "eccentric."

Raffi and Joe wound up inside with another group of people. Wyatt, Alex, Celia, and Marlin were all on the right side of the mansion.

"I forgot to ask you," Alex turned to Wyatt. "Did you ever find more pages of the Electra Heart diary thingy?" Marlin had been included into their circle about Electra Heart, but the four decided not to tell anyone else.

"Nope," Wyatt shook his head. "I don't think we've really been looking though, to be honest." he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, Liam has surprisingly kept us quite busy," explained Celia, putting her hands together on her dress. "Maybe now's the time to start looking, though. Liam's getting more independent and I've been thinking about Electra recently."

"It's kind of strange to refer to this Electra Heart woman as a person that we know personally," Marlin frowned as he expressed his feelings on the subject.

"So we should start looking… starting tomorrow?" suggested the redhead, trying to bring the conversation closer to what they were actually talking about instead of what her husband was going on about.

"I wonder how we would actually look for pages though…" Celia mused, putting her hand on her chin as she wondered this.

"Maybe we'd find a page in the mine," joked Wyatt with a half-smile. "I mean, it did get bigger in the past few years."

This was something actually that not many people noticed but the inside of the mine was definitely expanding. Flora and Carter were the main reason behind this, but Alex liked to go to the mine frequently to mine all the shiny, pretty things. Wyatt would go there as well because the things there would usually sell for a good amount of cash. Plus, Celia pretty much liked all the things that were dug up from the mine.

"I think that Carter was saying that there were more things appearing at the mine recently when we had a drink yesterday before the New Year's Eve Festival," Marlin added. "So it's not that farfetched of an idea."

"I'm sure that there are just other pages hidden around the valley as well." Wyatt nodded.

"So it won't hurt for us to just look wherever the hell we wanted when we have time off, right?" Alex raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, grinning at the rest.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Celia shrugged and smiled.

"Erm, why don't we go back to the party so that we don't seem like outcasts?" suggested Alex with a nervous laugh, noting that actually no one was outside. They agreed and quickly made their way inside back to the party.

* * *

><p>The party was fun and lasted until sometime in the evening. The rest of the day went by quickly and the next day was the second of Spring.<p>

"Morning, Dad," Liam greeted his dad with a small smile. Wyatt smiled back and gave Liam a greeting for the morning before going into the kitchen and then the bath side of the bathroom.

"I've made some good breakfast, Liam!" Celia called out to her son. He came into the kitchen and took his seat on his chair. Celia set down plates for all three of them and Wyatt soon came out of the bathroom.

"So are you going to Vesta's Farm to work there today?" Wyatt asked, taking a bite of his breakfast.

"Auntie!" chirped Liam, making Wyatt smile and give his son a small pat on the head. Celia shook her head to what Wyatt was asking.

"No, Marlin's going there today," she explained. "I'll just work on our field today." Wyatt nodded.

Once Celia moved in, she wanted a space to grow crops, so the two saved up their cash to build a little field right next to their house. Wyatt was actually pleased to get it because he was interested in growing trees, so Celia reserved a long strip of land for Wyatt to have a little orchard because she never bothered with trees.

Marlin and Alex doubled the size of their field by adding another field the same size as the original because the two of them loved to plant their crops. They had a few trees that Alex would take care of. This was something that she and Wyatt had in common.

"Alright, well let me know if there's any fruit on the trees today, okay?" Wyatt asked. Celia said that she would. Wyatt turned to Liam. "How would you feel about being a farmer one day like Mommy?" Liam smiled.

"Farmer!" he cheered. "Farmer! Yeah!" Wyatt smiled.

"What about being a rancher like Daddy?" Celia asked Liam, who looked a little confused. "You get to work with all the animals like the cows and sheep and chickens." Liam smiled again.

"Rancher!" he cheered. "I love animals!" Celia chuckled and noticed that they were all done eating, so she took their plates and silverware to the sink.

"I'll take care of that later," she smiled. Wyatt stood up and made his way to the door, but then remembered something.

"Oh, Honey?" he asked Celia, who turned to him. "Remember when we were talking to Alex and Marlin yesterday about getting that pond? We should go get them and talk to Takakura about that and where it should be built."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Celia nodded and turned to Liam. "We're just gonna go next door, okay?" Liam nodded and got up to go to the main room. Wyatt and Celia made their way to Alex's house and knocked on the door. She and Marlin looked ready to get to work.

"We have to talk to Takakura about the pond, remember?" Wyatt informed them.

"Oh, right!" Alex and Marlin looked like they forgot as well. "Let's go then!" the four knocked on Takakura's door and he told them to come in. Wyatt opened the door and let everyone else go in first, but the second they all walked in they were shocked at what they saw.

Takakura was facing a very strange plant with two big green bulbs with faces on them, two leafs on both sides of the bulbs, and a yellow pod in the middle. The plant kept moving around and its heads would get larger and smaller as it danced. Takakura turned to the group.

"… It ate it," he said, making the group even more confused.

"That's good!" the plant piped up loudly, giving everyone a fright. "This is a… Oh yeah, a tomato, right?! I'm right, ain't I?"

"When I got back from the city one time, I found a bag with a seed in it in my pocket," explained Takakura. "There was a letter attached that said 'Please take care of Tartan for us.'"

"So I guess you planted that seed and… here's this thing," Wyatt raised an eyebrow.

"Is that right?" Tartan started talking again. "Whaddayaknow… maybe I'm an orphan. Ya know, I think we were destined to meet. But really, Wyatt, isn't calling me 'that thing' just a bit rude?" Wyatt gasped.

"How do you know my name?!" he barked.

"Hmm?" Tartan replied. "Don't ask me. It must be fate!" he then started moaning something about being hungry and how the people on the farm seemed to eat well. Takakura sighed and took out a crop to feed Tartan.

"He's pretty big, but he looks harmless…" Takakura explained.

"Oh, why don't we just keep him then?" suggested Alex with a smile. Tartan seemed to enjoy Alex's response.

"Whew! That's a relief!" Tartan said when Alex said that they should keep the plant. "I knew that you were all nice people the second I saw you!"

"Thanks," Celia giggled.

"I can take crops and give you their rating and other things about the crop or you can give me two crops and I can make hybrid crops!" explained Tartan. "There's other special things that you can do with crops and other things, but I'm not sure what. Or what will happen. Oh well!"

"I think that we'll be visiting this guy a lot," Marlin said, referring mainly to himself, Alex, and Celia.

"Why does he have to stay in my house…" groaned Takakura, quietly, but then decided that it didn't matter and that Tartan would probably grow on him.

"Anyway, Takakura!" Alex brought the conversation back to the reason why they were at his house. Celia nodded.

"We want to build a pond!" the brunette explained.

"Well… why are you telling me?" Takakura wondered. They all looked confused. "We have a carpenter in the valley now…"

"Oh yeah!" yelled Alex. Wyatt and Marlin sighed at how they didn't realize this, but then Celia brought something else up.

"It'd be good to know where you think we should put it, though," she explained. The other three nodded, feeling less stupid when Celia brought this up. Takakura thought about this for a moment.

"How about under the tree in the pasture?" recommended Takakura. "It probably won't take away too much of the grass and won't bother the animals."

"Sounds good to me," Wyatt nodded.

"Me too," Marlin agreed.

"Great!" Alex cheered. "Let's go visit Joe now and get the pond built!" they all said goodbye to Takakura and Tartan and made their way to visit the carpenter to get plans made to create the pond.

The group of four made their way to Raffi and Joe's house behind the inn. They made their way towards the front garden and near the front door. Wyatt was about to knock on the door when he caught something to the left of the door and hidden somewhat behind a bush and under a rock.

"What is it, Honey?" Celia wondered when Wyatt grabbed what was out of the corner of his eye. It was a page.


	19. Teach Me How to Be Loved

Teach Me How to Be Loved

"It must be a page for Electra Heart, right?" Marlin looked at the page, suspiciously, as Wyatt picked it up. Wyatt confirmed that this was true. The writing and format of it all was exactly like the other pages already in the book.

"Well, let's take a look at it, then," Celia said as they all looked at the page.

This page was part of the "Su-Barbie-A" collection. It was the beginning of this section, too, indicated by the page number. It was entirely in black and white like the other page that they got and the hairstyle/wig was similar to the one in the other page, although it was flatter, more like a wig, and messier on the right side. The dress looked a little bit like an Alice in Wonderland dress, but it was a little hard to tell since the picture cut off at the elbows. The girl in the picture had a menacing look on her face at the reader. The caption read, with hearts on both sides: " REAL FAKE "

"I really don't like that look that Electra's giving us…" murmured Alex, looking scared as they looked at the picture.

"We're calling the girl Electra now?" Wyatt wondered, raising an eyebrow. Alex shrugged.

"Why not?' she asked. "This is called ELECTRA Heart isn't it?" they all agreed that this was true and it'd be easier to identity the girl in the book with a name.

The back side of the page was a collection of three pictures in one horizontal line. It was the same outfit, hairstyle, and location as the picture on the front side, but in color and smaller pictures that made it harder to see the full quality. With color, you could tell that Electra's small bob was platinum blonde, she had on pink lipstick, and her dress seemed to be a white color over a blue color. The far left picture looked pretty much like a colored version of the first picture, the middle looked like her head was tilted to her right and her hair was a bit more in her face, and the far right picture looked like she moved back into place. The caption read, with hearts on both sides: " THE ELECTRA HEART COMPLEX "

"Doesn't that have something to do with Greek mythology?" wondered Celia, scratching her head softly as if she were trying to decode the entire Electra Heart concept with this picture alone.

"That's the Electra complex," Marlin explained, but then frowned. "I don't think this directly refers to that though… because the Electra complex is about being in love with your dad."

"Okaaaayyyyy…" Alex looked very worried upon hearing this.

"I'm sure this doesn't have anything to do with that, except that it sounds the same," replied Wyatt. "I think it's just a reference to Greek mythology, though."

"How do you figure that?" wondered Alex, putting her hands on her hips.

"An Ancient Greek tragedy and a Hollywood fantasy…" Wyatt said, as if this were something that he was reciting from what someone told him. "I don't really know how I know that line… but it must have something to do with Electra Heart."

"That's kinda creepy, Honey…" Celia said, frowning and giving Wyatt a face. He scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.

"I know, sorry," he apologized.

"Why don't we just keep this between us still?" suggested Marlin as Wyatt put the page safely away in his bag. "It is strange of us to find this in front of Raffi's house, but I don't think we should jump to conclusions and ask her all about it."

"Sounds good to me!" Alex cheered. "Less confrontation that way, too. I like that. Anyway, we should go get our pond ordered."

They finally knocked on the door and after a little time Joe answered the door. He let them inside with a smile, explaining that Raffi and Jordan went off to the city.

"Sorry about taking a while to answer the door," Joe apologized. "I was working on fixing one of our drawers. I just finished actually! What do you guys need?"

"We were asking for you, actually," Celia smiled. "We'd like to build a pond on the ranch."

"Sure, I can do that," Joe replied, with a smile. "It's gonna be about 5000 G and I assume you'll split it between the four of you?" the four of them nodded. They all compiled the necessary funds.

"If you could build it under the tree in the pasture where the animals graze that would be great," Marlin explained. Joe nodded.

"No problem," he said and then turned to Wyatt. "Just make sure to keep the animals inside so that they don't get in the way of the creation of the pond." he nodded.

"I think it'll be raining soon anyway, so I'd wanna keep them inside," Wyatt smiled. "Thanks for getting everything set up." they all left and went about the rest of the day quickly. Wyatt made sure to carefully add the new page to the Electra Heart book.

* * *

><p>Another day passed and it was Spring 4th. Celia was on her way to Vesta's Farm from the Diamonds Ranch. As she approached the bridge, she saw Muffy standing there looking into the water. She clearly wasn't happy.<p>

"Are you alright there, Muffy?" Celia asked, walking over to the blonde and stopping once she was next to her. Muffy frowned and shook her head.

"I was dumped again," she explained after sighing. Celia gasped and turned to her for more of an explanation. "He was from the city, but… he was married…" Muffy started tearing up a little.

"That's horrible, Muffy!" gasped Celia. Muffy nodded. She was able to keep herself from crying and continued.

"After talking with him for a while, I realized that he even had kids," Muffy said. Celia looked even more shocked and disgusted upon hearing this. "I was so shocked that I couldn't even talk. It was horrible."

"I bet," Celia frowned and put her hand on Muffy's shoulder to comfort her. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that." Muffy turned to Celia with her eyes open now.

"Why do men do things like that?" she wondered. "Why can't they be satisfied with one woman?" Muffy didn't expect Celia to answer, but waited anyway. The blonde turned to the horizon. "Isn't there someone out there for me? I just want someone to love me. Only me. Is it that difficult for a man to love just one woman?"

"Someday, Muffy," Celia tried to make Muffy feel better. "There's someone out there for you, I know it." Muffy turned to Celia and nodded at her comforting words.

"Well, I've got to find someone else now…" she sighed, but not in an entirely sad tone. Muffy smiled. "Thanks for listening to my story like you did a few years ago. I've got to find somebody nice like you did. Let's talk again sometime."

"I'm open to talk anytime that you need to," replied Celia with a smile. Muffy thanked Celia again and gave a goodbye, saying that she probably should head back to the bar.

Celia continued on to Vesta's Farm and got working with Vesta out in the fields. Marlin wasn't coming in today so it was just the two of them.

"You know, I'm a little sad today," Celia admitted to Vesta as they were harvesting a batch of strawberries and replacing them with tomatoes and other Spring crops.

"Why's that?" Vesta wondered, taking a big basket full of the harvested strawberries to the side after Celia helped her put them in the basket. They would be shipped to Flower Bud Village and other neighboring towns.

"I was talking to Muffy today and she told me that she got dumped," explained the brunette. "It sounded exactly like the same conversation she had with me a few years ago about the other time she was dumped by someone in the city."

"I can see why that would make you sad…" replied Vesta.

"It wasn't even just the facts of her being dumped that got me sad…" Celia continued. "I'm just unsure if she'll ever find someone to love her. Especially if she keeps getting dumped because you sorta have to be taught how to be loved all over again every time."

"She should just get together with Griffin," joked Vesta with a small smile.

"Auntie Vesta…" Celia sighed, but then giggled a little. "Well, thanks for cheering me up a little."

"You shouldn't be too worried about Muffy finding someone who will be good to her," Vesta insisted, lugging another basket to a different collection of crops. "She's a good girl. She'll find someone soon."

"I hope so," Celia smiled, optimistically, and then went back to work.

* * *

><p>The next day was Spring 5th. It was a rainy day today, so there was a majority of people inside. It wasn't the first day of rain in the year, but everyone was acting a little bit like it was.<p>

"Why does Liam like playing in the rain?" wondered Celia as she saw Liam looking out the window excitedly at the rain falling down.

"I don't know…" Wyatt scratched the back of his head. "Might have something to do with the fact that I like the rain, too." he admitted with a laugh.

"Rain!" Liam cheered.

"Alright, you can go out, but don't get too dirty, okay?" said Wyatt, opening the front door so that Liam could rush outside with a cheer. "And if you go into the pasture don't get in Joe's way!"

"Okay, Daddy!" Liam called back, although he looked like he was just gonna run around the ranch near the house and not bother going into the pasture.

Joe was working hard on the pond, making sure that it would all be good and wouldn't mess up the nearby tree. Liam running around enjoying the rain seemed to put Joe in a better mood and made him get to work quicker. He took a small break and leaned on the fence just as Liam came by.

"Are you enjoying the rain there?" Joe asked as he had a little sandwich for lunch. Liam nodded.

"Yeah!" he cheered. "Rain!" Joe laughed and nodded back.

"Good for you," he said.

Inside Alex's house, Alex and Marlin were enjoying a warm drink and chatting away while Gwen was lying on the floor and sketching something. Alex looked up and through one of her windows to see Liam playing about in the rain.

"Don't you want to join your friend Liam out in the rain, Guinevere?" the redhead asked her daughter. Gwen stuck her tongue out as she was scribbling her last minute touches on a picture and really getting into it. She then looked up from her drawing at her mother.

"No, Mom!" Gwen replied, loudly. Alex frowned.

"Alright then," she said, taking a sip from her drink.

"Okay, Liam, time to come in," Celia came outside and found Liam. It had been a little bit of time.

"Why do I have to come in?" wondered Liam with a frown and his finger on his mouth, pondering this.

"I know you like to play in the rain, but if you stay out in the rain too long then you'll get a cold," explained Celia with a smile. She held out her hand to her son. "Come on, honey." Liam smiled and let out a little cheer.

"Okay, Mommy!" he clutched at her hand and the two walked back to the house.

The rain got lighter as the day went on, but it was expected to go all day and through the night. However, once the sun was to set then the rain would be very light.

At sunset, Flora and Carter left the mine for the day.

"It was good work today," Carter said. "I'm glad that the mines never get repetitive." Across the river, Daryl was looking over at Flora. Even after all these years, Daryl has kept an eye on Flora without actually saying a word to her. He looked particularly sad today that he didn't have to courage to actually talk to her.

"I agree," Flora said with a smile. "Are you going to go to the bar now?" Carter nodded.

"You wanna come?" although he expected Flora's answer, he thought it'd be polite to ask anyway. Flora actually thought about it for a moment, but then shook her head.

"No, I'll just hang about, make some food, and then go to bed," she explained.

"Okay, I'll see you later, then," Carter said, waving as he walked away.

"I'll be sure to save you some food!" Flora called out. She didn't see Carter cringe at the comment and soon Carter was out of sight.

Even though it was raining lightly, Flora decided to stay outside and enjoy nature. She looked up and her glasses got wet quickly. Flora lowered her head and wiped the droplets off with her shirt and smiled as she looked ahead to the horizon.

"I can't believe that selfish Carter left you by yourself to go drink…" complained Daryl, wide-eyed. Flora started turning in the direction of the forest and Daryl quickly hid behind his tree. However, after noting that she wasn't moving after a while, Daryl carefully looked to see that Flora was just looking at the waterfall.

"It's a wonder that I'm not deaf with this waterfall running constantly next to me all the time," Flora joked to herself, smiling and pushing her glasses in place as she looked down to the ground.

"Heh…" Daryl chuckled at Flora's joke, being careful to be quiet with his laugh, but pretty much any whisper would be covered up by the sound of the rushing water from across the river. Suddenly, Flora stood up.

"I think I'm going to go to the forest, actually…" she said and started walking down the trail. Immediately, Daryl started freaking out. He figured that if he tried to run down the forest path, then he would be noticed. But he couldn't just stand there and have Flora realize that he was stalking her!

Flora was already across the bridge and on her way to the forest, so running away was out of the question. Daryl finally decided that he should make his hiding spot better, so he rushed to the big tree by the pond because it was a better place to be out of someone's way. Flora eventually made her way to the forest and looked out at the pond.

"I guess I'll go fishing…" Flora decided, taking out a fishing rod. "Although I'm not very good at it. And I don't even know if you can find fish here… Oh dear, I'm talking to myself now. I'd better just fish now instead of pretending that someone's here to talk to."

"Mmm…" Daryl sighed, making sure that he was clear out of sight of Flora as she sat down and swung out the bobber to go out into the pond.

About an hour went by before Flora gave up fishing. She heard Daryl rustling behind the tree and got a little suspicious, but when she looked nothing seemed out of place for her, so she didn't bother and left.

"Oh, Flora…" Daryl sighed, leaving his hiding spot and looking down in disappointment, mostly in himself. Eventually, he, too, left the forest to go back and sulk in his laboratory house and bury himself in some sort of work to get him to stop thinking about Flora.

* * *

><p>The sun finally set and the rain was practically nonexistent. It was essentially just mist or fog throughout the valley.<p>

Muffy decided to leave the bar early as there was no one there. Griffin allowed this and she made her way past the side of the bar, past Daryl's house, past the little pond with trees around it near Cody's house, and finally at the beach.

"Hmm…" Muffy said slowly, looking out to the ocean. She started crying and fell down on her knees with her face buried into her hands. Muffy cried for a while and then got back to her feet when she finally stopped and looked out to the sea once again.

"Muffy?" Griffin made his way to the beach and found the blonde on the shore. "I expected to find you here."

"I guess I'm pretty predictable, huh?" Muffy asked, scratching her arm awkwardly. "Maybe that's why I can't find a good man to love me. If I can even learn what it means to be loved."

"Look, Muffy, I know it's tough for you right now, but you can get through this sad moment," said Griffin with a smile. "You always do, don't you?"

"I guess so…" murmured Muffy, turning back to the ocean as the sea breeze blew through her blonde hair. "It's just… I'm feeling a lot more pessimistic about it recently. I just don't see… an amazing future for me. Especially with everyone around me getting married."

"Everyone's gonna get married, you know," replied the bartender with a small chuckle. "You're not even that old yet. Someone's just waiting for you in the same way that you're waiting for someone."

"Where are they then?" wondered the blonde, seeming like she was gonna cry again. She held herself back and stopped talking to gather her thoughts again. "Shouldn't they know that I'm looking for them? Shouldn't they just… find me if they're waiting or searching for me?"

"You can't be that demanding of one person," Griffin replied with a little shrug. "You two will find each other."

"I don't know…" Muffy was still hesitant to be positive, still clutching at her elbow with a frown.

"I don't know what other advice to give you…" Griffin said with a frown. "You will find someone. I know you will." Muffy bit her lip when she watched Griffin walk away.

"You could teach me…" she whispered, before she realized that she was just talking to the night. "Never mind." Muffy turned around to face the ocean again, but just kept looking down at her red heels. She wanted to cry more, but didn't really have it in her to do so, so she just stayed outside until she completely exhausted herself and she made her way back to the bar.


	20. How Are You?

How Are You?

The next day was the sixth and for the first time in a long time there were some visitors who were going to stay at the hotel until the end of the season. It was a pair of brothers with an age difference of about 14 years.

The younger brother, Tim, was about 12-years-old, and wore blue with a miner's cap. He has a lot of energy and loves to go on adventures or dream of going on adventures. Tim looks up to his older brother greatly, even though he doesn't want to follow his career.

The older brother's name was Bob and he was about 26-years-old. He was big and buff with simple blue jeans and a wife beater. Bob owns a place called Brownie Farm and takes care of animals. He is outgoing, a bit like his younger brother, and has a love back in the town where he lives.

"We have some visitors in the valley for the rest of the season, Muffy," Griffin said, entering her room as she sneezed. He frowned and sighed.

"Oh really?" Muffy wondered in a sniffle. She was in her pajamas and tucked tightly under the blankets with her face looking puffy and tissues scattered all across the floor by her bed. Griffin crossed his arms.

"I can't believe you stayed outside until you nearly passed out," he said, scolding her. Muffy ignored this comment, or tried to, but he kept going. "I know the rain pretty much was gone by then, but it was still cold out! It's no wonder you got a cold."

"Yeah yeah," Muffy wafted her hand in the air casually, not worried about her sickness at all. "Listen, I probably won't be able to go about tomorrow either, so when you go to the Flower Festival let them know I say hello."

"Oh, if you're not going tomorrow then I'm not going either," laughed Griffin, sitting down on a nearby chair and handing Muffy a glass of water. She sat up from her warm den of blankets and pillows and took the glass with a thank you. "You need someone to take care of you, so we can get someone else to say hello for us. Or we can just wait until you're better to say hello."

"Thanks, Griffin," the blonde smiled and set her water down on a nearby table and started coughing again. "Now get out before I get you sick." Muffy insisted, covering her face with a pink blanket as she kept coughing.

"Alright, just call if you need anything," Griffin replied. Muffy nodded and waved to him as he left.

* * *

><p>Everyone seemed to be excited with the two visitors in the valley. Any sort of change riled everyone up from the typical stuff that went about in the valley. Even Gustafa wound up leaving his yurt, which was a pretty uncommon thing of him to do after Nami left.<p>

"Come on, Gustafa, come to the bar later tonight!"

A few people wanted him to be out even more for the day, and Gustafa said that he would probably go to the bar since everyone seemed so eager to get him out of his house, which was a good thing.

A group of people wanted to go to the bar, so Patrick and Cody wound up there first with Griffin behind the counter, ready to serve drinks. Wyatt and Alex soon came into the bar afterwards. The only other person they seemed to be waiting on was Gustafa, but they decided to start the conversation already.

Wyatt and Alex actually wound up going to the bar together after the two had kids and became even closer. Ironically, Marlin went to the bar less than he used to, but he still enjoyed going. Celia only goes to the bars for festivals or for lively nights at the bar when Wyatt wants her to go with him.

The conversation quickly moved to Nami, so it was a good thing that Gustafa hadn't arrived yet.

"Sometimes it's still hard to believe that she's been gone for so long, or even has been gone at all," Cody murmured with a drink in his hand. It was a strong drink, like Cody always liked, but Cody was a heavyweight so it didn't matter how strong a drink was.

"It's hard to talk about it, too…" Alex said, playing with her red hair that Nami shared with her. Alex didn't like to get a drink with alcohol in it and mainly liked the atmosphere of the bar, but when it was a celebration or a sad event she would usually get something with alcohol. Tonight, she had a fruity alcoholic drink. "I wonder if she's ever gonna come back."

"Of course she is," Wyatt replied, trying to be the positive one in the group for once as he took a swig of something with alcohol in it. "She promised Gustafa. She promised all of us."

"I just wonder what she's been up to this whole time, to be honest…" Patrick said, rubbing his chin as he thought about it.

"Do you want a refill, Cody?" Griffin asked the painter, trying to stay out of the conversation because it was sad for him too and he didn't want to be too sucked into the conversation to go help Muffy.

"Sure, top it off," Cody set his glass down and the bartender did so. Just as they all started taking a drink, Carter rushed into the bar, startling everyone inside.

"What's up, Carter?" asked Alex.

"Guys!" Carter called out, seeming to be in a daze and not noticing Alex's casual comment. "I just saw Nami!" Everyone's eyes in the room widened and they all rushed outside.

Carter was right. Nami was standing a few feet from the entrance with one hand in her pocket with the other by her side, as she usually stood.

"Nami!" yelled Alex, rushing to the redhead and giving her a big hug. Nami let a tiny smile pass on her lips as she accepted the embrace.

"I've got to tell my brother!" Patrick said, excitedly, and rushed off to do so. Cody wanted to say something, but just smiled in Nami's direction. This was returned with a similar response. The two had a very interesting way of communicating, but it worked. Nami then turned to the others and scratched the back of her head.

"Please don't make such a big fuss…" she mumbled, feeling a little flustered.

"Let's celebrate with a song, huh?" Griffin suggested, clasping his hands together and smiling. Tim left the Inner Inn that was close by, wondering what all the commotion was. Nami gave a simple wave.

"Welcome back, Nami," Tim greeted after having to brace himself for her return, being pretty shocked to just see her there. "I'm so glad you're here!" He smiled to Nami and she scratched the back of her head nervously again.

"I just wanted to eat some more of Ruby's cooking," Nami insisted with a straight face.

"Ruby will be so happy!" Tim said, being reminded of Nami and his wife getting on well. "Your room is just as you left it. This is your home, remember!"

"Thanks, Tim," another small smile appeared on her lips as Nami spoke to Tim. She turned back to the small crowd looking at her with smiles. "So I guess… I… I'll be here a little longer."

"As long as you like," Wyatt said, with a smile.

"Everyone will be happy," Alex beamed, hugging herself and then giving Nami another quick hug. Nami laughed a little awkwardly and looked away from the others from the moment, seeming to be focused on something else.

"Thanks…" she said. "Hmm… I'll think about it…" Nami then was able to pry herself from the others to walk away from the main path and walk towards the beach. She cut through the little area with trees behind the Inner Inn and near Raffi's house to get to Gustafa's yurt. Gustafa opened the door, seeming to be on his way to the bar, and saw Nami in front of him.

"Nami…" he gasped, seeing her do some sort of look that looked kind of sad, but was more melancholic and she smiled a little. "Are you… here to stay?"

"I'll think about it…" repeated Nami to what she said earlier, but then she smiled again. "Of course I'm gonna stay." She walked closer to Gustafa and held his head and pulled in closer for a kiss. After their much needed kiss, Gustafa smiled at Nami and brushed her hair out of her face a little.

"Wanna go to the bar?" he asked. "I was just on my way there."

"Nope," Nami answered rather bluntly. "I need to unpack. So I'll see you tomorrow at the Flower Festival."

"Okay," Gustafa nodded. The two had been holding hands and as Nami was walking away it was a little hard for them to let go of each other's hands, but they slowly did and waved to each other as they went their separate ways for the night.

* * *

><p>The Flower Festival was held on the 7th of the season, as it always was. Pretty much everyone did their best to attend this year, but Griffin and Muffy were the notable absences this year due to Muffy being sick and Griffin insisting on taking care of her, even though she was pretty close to being better.<p>

As the years went by, the Flower Festival was improved from the first Flower Festival. The idea of voting on a Harvest Goddess was implemented and everyone had been voting since the start of the season. The location was still at the forest by the Goddess Pond, but now there was a big selection of flowers to enjoy.

"This is really nice," Bob said, talking to a few locals of Forget-Me-Not. "We don't have any festivals or anything back in Sugar Valley, so it's nice to come to a different town and experience something like this."

"No festivals, eh?" Wyatt asked, taking a drink of something after asking this. "Well, we have Alex here to thank for this and other festivals. And on improving them."

"Oh, be quiet, Wyatt," the redhead smiled and nudged Wyatt. "You did your part in making these festivals as well! You know, maybe you guys just need someone to organize the festivals and then you can have them." Alex suggested.

"That's a good idea!" Tim jumped up and down at Alex's suggestion. "I think I'll take it upon myself to do that when I go back home."

"It's good to see the youth being active in their community!" Rock replied, energetically, after Tim left to go chat with other people. This comment made Bob smile. "I really hope that Brad is like that when he's older… although if he's like me he'll probably just wanna lounge about and look for parties."

"There's nothing wrong in that!" Lumina tried to say seriously.

"Lumina, please," Alex said, holding her arm out to express what she was saying. "Yes. There is."

"I think all of our kids are gonna grow up and be good people, especially here in the valley," Joe said with a smile. "Which is why I'm glad we moved out here from the city."

"Except when they're teenagers," corrected Raffi, holding up her finger like she was a teacher. "Even moving to a rural town like this will not allow us to escape from hormone-crazed teenagers."

"I'm gonna not think about that now and enjoy the fact that our kids are still cute and innocent," decided Wyatt. Everyone else agreed that this was a good idea.

Samantha and Grant were talking to everyone as this was pretty much their first time being with a big group of people. Grant took the day off work, which made Samantha and Kate pretty happy.

"How are you two enjoying the valley?" Flora asked as she took a flower from a batch of blue flowers and twirled it around in her hand.

"It's a lot more peaceful than the city," Grant answered, quickly. "It makes coming home a lot nicer. When you live in the city and go home, you feel a bit like you're still at work."

"It's a nicer environment to raise a kid in, too," continued Samantha, sighing happily and placing her hands on the front of her oriental dress. "They're less likely to get into trouble. I think Kate enjoys the kids here more than she did back in the city."

"It's nice that you like it here, then," Gustafa said with a smile. "You'll have to come to all of the festivals so that we can all get to know you."

"Oh, when's the next festival?" wondered Grant. "Maybe I can ask in advance to get that day off and I'll have a better chance of getting that day off."

"The second of Summer," replied Romana. "It's a festival all about the beach! Even if you can't get the day off, you can just come home and enjoy the fireworks."

"I'm already excited for it," Samantha admitted, smiling.

* * *

><p>The dancing aspect of the festival was saved for until after the announcement of the Harvest Goddess. Flora, last year's Harvest Goddess, called Celia, Lumina, Chris, Raffi, and Alex to the Diamonds Ranch to make the crowning of the Goddess more suspenseful.<p>

"You know," Wyatt began conversation to Joe with Marlin, Rock, and Wally there, "the first year that we started having a Harvest Goddess for this festival was Alex. If anything it was more of a congratulations for putting on good festivals."

"Yeah, plus she really enjoyed dressing up in that outfit," Marlin replied with a small smile and his arms crossed. "It was pretty fun to dance with her as the Harvest Goddess, I must admit."

"All this voting for the Harvest Goddess makes me wonder…" Joe decided to bring this up, putting a finger on his chin. "Is there a real Harvest Goddess? Or maybe if there is a Harvest Goddess, do you think she visits here?" They all looked out into the Goddess Pond.

"I've heard rumors of Harvest Goddess sightings in other towns…" Wally piped up, drawing the attention back to the people in the group instead of the pond. "I'm not sure though. No rumors of anyone seeing the Goddess here in the valley. And there definitely aren't Goddess sightings within the city."

"That's a given," Rock replied with a hearty laugh.

"I think all the rumors have said that the Harvest Goddess has been spotted in ponds, so if we do have one she would be in that aptly named pond," Joe pointed back to the pond.

"I don't think we have time to think about this for much longer…" Wyatt said, directing everyone to the path into the forest area where Flora appeared.

"We are now ready to present the Harvest Goddess!" Flora stepped aside. It was customary for the people to not have been voted Harvest Goddess to go first one by one until one girl remained, dressed in the Harvest Goddess clothing.

First to step ahead was Alex, waving at everyone with a small smile. Then Lumina, then Chris, and finally Raffi. Celia was last to reenter the forest and she was draped in the Harvest Goddess outfit and seemed very pleased to have been voted to this title.

"You look great, Honey," Wyatt told his wife, giving her a small kiss.

"Thank you," she replied, blushing a little. "I'm happy that I got to do this." Liam rushed over and looked at Celia and cheered.

"Isn't Mommy pretty in her outfit?" Wyatt asked Liam, lifting him up.

"Yeah!" he cheered, giggling as he was picked up. "Pretty!"

"Thank you, Liam," Celia smiled and gave Liam a little kiss on the forehead. Liam, once again, cheered, and Wyatt set him down so that he could join his other friends for the dancing part.

"I assume I don't have to ask you to be my dancing partner," Wyatt assumed, lifting is hand out to Celia even under this assumption. Celia joke laughed into her hand like a rich person and took Wyatt's hand.

"Why yes, Sir, you may dance with the Harvest Goddess…" replied Celia with a smile. "You just have to take me back to my house before curfew or my parents will be VERY upset." The brunette couldn't joke anymore and just told Wyatt to get the dancing started.

"The Harvest Goddess has to let the music start… you know that," explained Wyatt. Celia nodded and turned to Carter, who was in control of the music. She gave him a thumbs up and he played an upbeat song for them all to dance too.

* * *

><p>After the dancing died down a bit, the kids were a little riled up and having fun with the music on. They were all in their own little world as the adults were dancing, singing, chatting, drinking, and doing what all adults do at festivals and parties.<p>

"So you're saying you never go to the mine?" Tim was talking to Hugh about his life in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Hugh shook his head.

"I mostly work out with my dad and come here," he explained.

"But you're missing out on all the adventure!" replied Tim, dramatically, holding up a stick he just found. "There's some adventure in the forest, but I go to the mine all the time and it's always an adventure there!"

"Doesn't it seem a little dangerous for you to go to mines all the time?" Kate wondered, crossing her arms and tapping her foot a little. Tim shrugged.

"I don't think so!" he said, casually. "But I can see why a girl would be scared to go into mines." Kate scoffed at this and stomped her foot into the ground, angrily. Hugh laughed a little until Kate glared daggers at him.

"Well, I never!" she barked at him.

"I don't get it," Tim tipped his head a little. Kate groaned and Hugh laughed again.

"Kate, calm down…" he told her, holding his arms out to persuade her to be less aggressive to their guest from another town.

"Whatever!" Kate said, finally simmering down and putting her hands on her hips. "Let's just talk about something else."

"Like what?" Tim wondered. Kate wondered what to talk about for a moment and then let a little grin form on her face.

"You wanna have a tea party with me and Hugh tomorrow?" she asked with a cute smile and her hands behind her back.

"Wait, what?!" gasped Hugh, taken aback and taking a step back to show this. "Don't do it, Tim!"

"Shush!" Kate hissed at Hugh. Tim held his arm out in Hugh's direction to stop him from protesting Kate's request.

"No, I was told by my brother that a man should be chivalrous and be accepting of what other people, especially girls, want to do," he explained. "So, we can have a tea party tomorrow."

"Yay!" Kate jumped up and cheered. "Are you coming then, Hugh?" He sighed.

"Why not," Hugh shrugged a little. "Might as well make Tim's suffering less painful." Tim smiled at him and nodded.

Meanwhile, the four younger kids were all hanging out together. Gwen was having fun with everyone, but occasionally took the time to pull out her sketch book that she had with her all the time and started scribbling something down.

"What's that?" Brad wondered, pointing to Gwen's drawing. She didn't like people looking at what she was working on while she was doing it, but knew that if she was going it in public then people would be curious. All the good drawings were saved for being at home.

"Pretty dress," replied Gwen, pointing to Celia. Jordan and Liam walked over and looked to see that she was drawing Celia's outfit in her book.

"Not an outfit?" Jordan pointed to the Goddess Pond drawing that was sketched in pretty good detail next to the Goddess dress. Everyone knew that Gwen never bothered drawing anything besides outfits.

"It important to drawing," she explained, closing her sketch pad to indicate that she was either done with the drawing or she was done until later.

"Looks good!" Liam said with a smile. Gwen gave Liam big hug to this. Brad tackled the two to the ground in a hug and Jordan wanted to be a part of this too, so he did something similar to Brad, but in a lesser extent.

"I wanna dance now!" Brad said, enthusiastically, when they all got up and seemed to be sick of hugging each other. What Brad wanted seemed to spark a want in the other kids, so they all started dancing with each other.

Everyone enjoyed the rest of the festival and it went on later than it usually did. The kids were allowed to stay up later, mainly because of their drunk parents, and no one wanted the Flower Festival to end. However, it had to, and everyone was looking forward to the next festival in the next season.


	21. Diamond to Stone

Diamond to Stone

Van's typical days of coming to Forget-Me-Not were still on the 3rd and the 8th, and because it was the 8th of Spring then Van would be visiting. Wyatt went to go see him and Van explained that there was a special item on sale.

"It's a goat and it will give you goat milk," Van said. Wyatt was actually really curious about this and decided to buy her. He named her Chevre.

Wyatt's selection of animals changed and at one moment of Wyatt being low on money he, sadly, had to sell Ermintrude and Walker. But he was able to buy more sheep and cows on a good growing season that Celia had.

Wyatt now had two cows, named Bessie and Belle, and two bulls, named Angus and Rodeo. He bought two sheep. One was a girl named Eunice and the other was a boy named Woolio, who Liam helped name. Lastly, Wyatt got two more chickens. The hen was named Luna and the rooster was named Sol.

Wyatt brought Chevre back to the barn, noting that his barn was now full. Wyatt walked outside and saw Alex finishing up on her crops.

"Hey, Alex!" Wyatt called out, waving to her. The redhead smiled and waved back after putting her hand over her eyebrows to get the sun out of her face and be sure of who it was yelling out to her. "Do you wanna come see my goat?"

"Sure!" Alex yelled back. "I've just finished up on the field." Wyatt nodded and walked into the barn, waiting about a minute for Alex to come in and comment that she was happy to see the goat.

"I actually called you in here for another reason," Wyatt said, also stating that he wanted Alex to see the goat because he knew that she would have wanted to see her. "I've been thinking about something that was brought up yesterday at the Flower Festival."

"What's that?" Alex wondered with a small smile and putting her hands behind her back and moving her body left and right as she awaited an answer.

"Do you know if there's a real Harvest Goddess?" wondered the blonde, scratching his head. Alex stopped moving around and thought about this.

"I don't know," she replied.

"I feel like we should talk to the Harvest Sprites about this," Wyatt insisted. "Honestly, I haven't spoken to them in a while because I've been so busy with my own stuff."

"Really?" Alex wondered, raising an eyebrow as the two left the barn and made their way to the forest. "I visit them a lot."

"I guess I'll have to visit them more often, then," Wyatt said. "I feel kinda bad now."

"This will be the first step to it then," noted Alex as they got to the forest and passed the Goddess Pond. Wyatt looked confused as Alex picked up a red mushroom and she returned him with the same look of confusion. "Don't you know what to do?"

"No, I've never visited them in their home before…" mumbled Wyatt, seeming a little embarrassed of this.

"Come on, Wyatt!" Alex complained, lifting the other red mushroom and handing it to him. "Eat it and we will vanish through the tiny door that we wouldn't normally be able to fit through." Wyatt nodded. The two ate their mushrooms and Wyatt felt dizzy and seemed to fall unconscious when he quickly woke up inside their house.

"Wyatt!" Nic said. Nak and Flak took their turns saying his name and saying what a surprise it was seeing him. They also greeted Alex and asked the two of them why they were in their home.

"Wyatt and I have something to ask you guys about something…" the redhead replied, turning to Wyatt to explain their question.

"What's the story about the Harvest Goddess?" he wondered a little bluntly. "Is she real? Does she simply not visit the valley? It's something we've all been wondering recently." The Harvest Sprites got quiet and looked at each other for a little while.

"Finally!" Flak said loudly.

"We've been waiting!" Nic replied, waving his arms with his blue sleeves that were too long for him around.

"We were waiting for someone to bring up the Harvest Goddess!" Nak explained.

"Why?" Alex wondered, putting a hand on her hip.

"We were cursed!" Nic said, covering his mouth and then uncovering it.

"We had to wait for people to return their interest to the Harvest Goddess before we could explain what happened!" Flak told them, falling over.

"Well…" Wyatt began, scratching the back of his head. "What happened to the Harvest Goddess, then?"

The Harvest Sprites took turns giving the story of the Harvest Goddess to Wyatt and Alex. A long time ago, pretty much before civilization even existed, the Harvest Goddess roamed the land and lived in her pond. Because there wasn't really a "harvest" she was more of a "Goddess of Nature," but no one referred to her as this.

One day, a girl simply named the Witch Princess who was the other magical entity in the valley decided that she would turn the Goddess to stone because she was sick of her, knowing that simply destroying her would make all nature and harvest stop. So, the Witch Princess invited the Harvest Goddess to her home acting like she was making up with her for all the trouble she caused, when she turned the Harvest Goddess to stone.

However, what the Witch Goddess didn't know was that the effects of turning the Harvest Goddess would end up turning her to stone as well because of some sort of counter spell that the Harvest Goddess always has on her, so the Witch Goddess's spell was reflected onto her as well.

"Wow," Alex's mouth was wide open in shock to this whole story. "So now that we've finally got interest in the Harvest Goddess, what can we do about this?! Where is she?!"

"We can take you to her," Flak replied with a hop.

"The Witch Princess's home still exists in the valley today," said Nak with a nod.

"We don't know how exactly you can help, but taking you to her is the first step!" Nic cheered. Wyatt and Alex looked at each other and nodded, determined to help the Harvest Goddess.

* * *

><p>The Harvest Sprites took Wyatt and Alex to Romana's mansion, which made Wyatt and Alex pretty confused and worried about what this mean.<p>

"I hope this means that there is no connection to Romana, Sebastian, or Lumina with the Witch Princess," Wyatt said, frowning and crossing his arms.

"No, but near here," the red Harvest Sprite replied. The two were wary, but followed the Harvest Sprites to the tool shed next to the mansion.

"The tool shed?" Alex wondered, even more confused. She almost wanted to laugh, actually, but knew she shouldn't when she noticed that Nic, Flak, and even Nak were shaking out of fear. The three nodded and Wyatt stepped ahead.

"Well, come on then," he began and turned around. "We've got a Harvest Goddess to save." Alex nodded, courageously, and followed Wyatt. The Harvest Sprites tagged along. The group was sure to sneak around so that no one from the mansion saw them past the windows.

Inside the tool shed was like any other tool shed. Tools all over, some used and some not, and no sight of a Witch Princess or Harvest Goddess.

"They're in here," Nic murmured, his voice and body shaking as he spoke.

"It doesn't look like it," said Alex, looking around cautiously. Wyatt looked around, too, and picked up a shovel. He turned it around and started hitting the stick part around on many different areas of the ground. "What are you doing?" The redhead was very confused until a spot in the ground made a different noise in comparison to the noise that was made when the shovel hit other parts of the ground.

"They're beneath us," Wyatt said, looking up and looking at Alex. "I know it." He ushered that she come over and he kicked aside a decent amount of dirt away and lifted one side of a hidden door so that Alex knew where it was and could help lift open the door.

"Their magical force is getting much stronger," Nak said, doing his best to keep his voice steady as he spoke. Wyatt and Alex started going down the steps, noting that it was pitch black in the room below.

"There's a light switch here," Alex pointed out a string hanging from the ceiling that was illuminated by the light from the main floor of the tool shed. She pulled the switch and suddenly many candles were lit up by fire that appeared out of nowhere and the whole basement was lit up.

It was exactly what you would imagine a witch's domain to be with bookshelves surrounding the walls with a myriad of books. In the middle was a still cauldron that probably would be bubbling if the Witch Princess was around. There was still some purple goop inside it. There was other stuff all just thrown messily around on the floor that any witch would need like bottles and such.

"Look!" Flak pointed ahead and there they were: the Witch Princess and the Harvest Goddess petrified. The Witch Princess was still in a casting a spell pose with her broom in her hand and the end of it pointed at the Harvest Goddess. However, the Harvest Goddess were completely turned around and looked rather natural in her stone state.

"This is really creepy…" murmured Alex, her teeth chattered as she clasped her hands together. "Let's hurry up and see what we can do with the Harvest Goddess!" Wyatt nodded and the two walked over, but once they got close enough to the Harvest Goddess, her statue started rumbling.

"This doesn't feel right," Wyatt said, cautiously. The two looked at the Harvest Goddess as her statue kept rumbling more and more until suddenly… a crack appeared on her face! This spread until the statue crumbled and collapsed.

"No!" Alex screamed.

"Wait!" Nak called out. "This isn't a bad thing!"

"Why not?" Wyatt asked, looking down at where the Harvest Goddess was standing. "She's pebbles now!"

"We felt her spiritual energy leave that body when the statue crumbled," Flak replied, confidently. "Her physical state will move on, somehow."

"In what way?" Alex wondered, crossing her arms.

"We're not exactly sure," Nic said, scratching his head. "Her spiritual state probably went into someone else, so we'll just have to wait until something is made obvious about where the Harvest Goddess is now."

"Alright then," Wyatt shrugged a little. "That was an easy little mission. But what about her?" The silver blonde pointed to the Witch Princess.

"We didn't really have any plans for her," admitted Nak with a small shrug.

"We should probably just leave her here," suggested Alex. "She's creepy-looking." Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, so they decided to leave the basement, covered the secret door, left the tool shed, and conspicuously made it past the mansion and stopped at the end of the hill.

"Thank you for all of your help today!" Flak said, falling over on his back. "We're all grateful that you had interest in the Harvest Goddess." The Harvest Sprites all agreed with what Flak said.

"It's no problem," Wyatt replied modestly.

"You're welcome!" Alex counteracted Wyatt's modesty, making him glare at Alex for a moment. The Harvest Sprites left and made their way back to their home. "Well I'm gonna visit Cody for a bit before going home. See ya!"

"Bye," Wyatt waved to the redhead as she made her way farther down the hill towards Cody's trailer.

* * *

><p>Wyatt started walking back from the bottom of the hill when something caught his eye to the left in the bushes outside of Samantha and Grant's house. He started walking slower and noticed that it was a page! It was practically calling to him, so he knew that it must have been a part of Electra Heart. Wyatt made sure no one was around and casually went out of his way to pick up the paper and kept walking.<p>

"This is definitely another page," Wyatt could determine this by simply scanning both sides of the page quickly. He looked around once more to see if maybe someone set the page there or if someone was gonna judge him for picking up the page and then examined the page once he was sure that no one was watching.

The page was part of the "Teen Idles" collection. Like the other two pages that the group collected, this one was the beginning of its respective section as indicated by the "1." The front side of the page was a pretty official-looking picture in black and white. Electra didn't seem to have a wig on, but her hair was white-looking with the sun shining down on it. She had on a white T-shirt with a pocket and some black spot on it that could have been either a bug or a pin and she also had what looked to be a tennis skirt on, but the picture cut off most of that so it was hard to tell. Electra was holding a red cup with a soda can almost completely hidden behind it on one hand with her middle finger with a ring on it holding onto the cup, almost as if she was flipping off whoever was looking at the picture. An interesting aspect of the picture was Electra's face: her tongue was stuck out with her left eye closed. Her right eye looked open and devilish, but it was hard to tell with a strand of hair mostly covering it. The background was possibly of a park because of the grass, bushes, and trees. The caption read, with hearts on both sides: " TEEN IDLE "

"Hmm…" Wyatt seemed mostly fixated on Electra's hair and looked at his own uncomfortably, but ignored it and turned the page over.

The back side of the page returned to the self-taken shots that Electra had from the other two pages. The picture seemed very badly taken, or maybe that was the point, as it was Electra turning her head to the right side with her possible blonde wig returning as it moved with her head movement. Electra was leaning into whatever took the picture and lying on a bed on her stomach with her feet in the air leaning to the left. There was some sort of bright light in a square in the background in what seemed to be a mirror. The caption read, with hearts on both sides of the caption: " TEEN IDLE #2 "

"Very aptly named," noted Wyatt, raising an eyebrow at the simple caption. Once he was done inspecting the page, he made his way back to the front of the Diamonds Ranch. Ironically, Celia was making her way towards the ranch too.

"Hi, Honey," she greeted Wyatt with a kiss. Celia looked down at the page in her husband's hands and seemed pretty interested. "Another one?" Wyatt nodded and handed her the page as she read it over.

"That first picture, I must say, it's pretty good," the blonde admitted. "And I'm not even trying to appreciate the quality of the pictures amidst figuring out whatever this Electra Heart even is."

"I agree," Celia said, looking over the two sides of the page. "Teen Idles section, eh? Where did you find this?"

"In front of Samantha and Grant's house," Wyatt explained. "I suppose it's a bit fitting since I feel like Kate will fulfill the archetype of a 'teen idle.'" He laughed a little at this. Celia smiled at Wyatt saying this as well.

"Interesting that you seem to just be finding these all over the place…" the farmer noted, handing him back the Electra Heart page. "I'm still curious as to why you're finding these in certain places and what this even means."

"I think we just have to be patient and get more pages and then we can figure it out on our own," assumed Wyatt with a little shrug. "Anyway, how's your day been so far?"

"Not bad," she replied with a smile. "We've just been bringing in what will die out next season so that we have room for crops that grow both now and in Summer. We're also saving spaces for plants that will start growing in Summer. How about you?"

"My day's been alright," Wyatt nodded. "I bought a goat if you want to see her."

"Oh, sure!" Celia clasped her hands together and giggled, excited to see her. Wyatt brought Celia into the barn to show her the goat he just got before the two got lunch and Celia went back to Vesta's Farm to go back to work.

* * *

><p>The next day was the ninth. Marlin was up pretty early and couldn't fall back to sleep so he decided to go on a walk to clear his head before starting work early. He walked around in the forest and made his way back to the ranch and noticed Grant sitting on the bench by the river. Marlin was curious as to why he wasn't on his way to work so he decided to start up conversation with him.<p>

"Hi, Grant," Marlin greeted Grant.

"Oh, hello, Marlin," he greeted him back. "What are you doing about so early?"

"I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep, so I decided to just have a wander," replied Marlin with a nod. "Why aren't you on your way to work?" Grant let out a little sigh.

"I was just thinking about things," he told Marlin. Grant moved over a little to let Marlin sit down next to him.

"Is it about your work?" Marlin wondered.

"Sorta…" replied Grant, scratching his neck a little. He sighed again and looked down at the river. "You know, a long time ago I had aspirations of things that weren't academic or formal work. Like acting or something."

"Really?" asked Marlin, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I could see you being an actor to be honest… why did you stop following this dream?" Grant was silent for a while before he finally decided to answer.

"Well… my father abused me until I stop having those dreams," he explained. Marlin gasped and sharply turned to Grant.

"Grant…" whispered Marlin, looking quite concerned, but Grant quickly lifted a hand to try and assuage Marlin.

"It's not a problem anymore for me, don't worry," he said. "I had therapy and all that and it was a long time ago, so I mostly got over it. The easiest way for me to get over it was when he died…"

"I see…" Marlin clasped his hands together and looked into the water.

"You're probably wondering why I didn't just pursue my want to be an actor…" Grant said, closing his eyes. He didn't bother waiting for Marlin to answer. "When he passed away, I wanted to keep working to do a 'boring job' in the city. I actually found an interest in the job that he wanted me to do. So I guess in the end he won?"

"I'm not sure that that's the best way to look at it," Marlin replied with a frown. "I mean, if you're still doing your job then it's more of your own choice, too."

"That's true…" Grant smiled a little and stood up after looking at his watch. "Speaking of which, I probably should get to work. It was really nice to get all of this off of my chest. So thank you very much for listening."

"No problem, Grant," Marlin said, standing up and smiling as well. "Talk to me any time you need someone to talk to." Grant nodded and made his way across the bridge and towards the city.


End file.
